Intentions to Marry, 1913 Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840452, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 650

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1913 Registrar Joseph Lissant Palethorpe

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

801

31 October 1913

George Noel Arkinstall
Annie Jarvis

George Noel Arkinstall
Annie Jarvis
💍 1913/7567

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

32
27

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
11 months

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

13/7306

31 October 1913

Rev. G. Y. Askew

No	801
Date of Notice	31 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Noel Arkinstall	Annie Jarvis
	💍 1913/7567
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	11 months
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	13/7306
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Askew

802

31 October 1913

Harold Archibald Elliot
Dorothy Mabel Christie

Harold Archibald Elliot
Dorothy Mabel Christie
💍 1913/7620

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

Life
15 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

13/7359

31 October 1913

Rev. J. B. Barra

No	802
Date of Notice	31 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Archibald Elliot	Dorothy Mabel Christie
	💍 1913/7620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	13/7359
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Barra

803

31 October 1913

Stanley Luscombe Searell
Pearl Alice Jackson

Stanley Luscombe Searell
Pearl Alice Jackson
💍 1913/8771

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington

8600

31 October 1913

Rev. N. Fancourt

No	803
Date of Notice	31 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Luscombe Searell	Pearl Alice Jackson
	💍 1913/8771
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington
Folio	8600
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. Fancourt

804

31 October 1913

Ernest Arrowsmith
Florence Matilda Barrington

Ernest Arrowsmith
Florence Matilda Harrington
💍 1913/7682

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

21
21

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

Methodist Parsonage, Webb Street, Wellington

13/7422

31 October 1913

Rev. N. S. Potter

No	804
Date of Notice	31 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Arrowsmith	Florence Matilda Barrington
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Arrowsmith	Florence Matilda Harrington
	💍 1913/7682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	13/7422
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. S. Potter

805

31 October 1913

Charles Hounslow
Alice May Walker

Charles Hounslow
Alice Mary Walker
💍 1913/7568

Divorced (decree absolute 23 June 1908)
Spinster

Linotype Operator

45
31

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
6 years

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

13/7307

31 October 1913

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	805
Date of Notice	31 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hounslow	Alice May Walker
BDM Match (97%)	Charles Hounslow	Alice Mary Walker
	💍 1913/7568
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute 23 June 1908)	Spinster
Profession	Linotype Operator
Age	45	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	13/7307
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).