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 665

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

876

2 December 1913

Charles Herbert Andrews
May Isabel Harper

Charles Herbert Andrews
May Isabel Harper
💍 1913/7623

Bachelor
Spinster

Departmental Manager

26
20

Petone
Wellington

14 years
20 years

St Marks Church

13/7361

John Harper, Father

2 December 1913

Rev. G. B. Stephenson

No	876
Date of Notice	2 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Herbert Andrews	May Isabel Harper
	💍 1913/7623
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Departmental Manager
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Church
Folio	13/7361
Consent	John Harper, Father
Date of Certificate	2 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Stephenson

877

2 December 1913

Allan Cleveland Johnson
Lillian Beatrice Evelyn Plummer

Allan Cleveland Johnson
Lillian Beatrice Evelyn Plummer
💍 1913/7624

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

28
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
3 years

St Michaels Church, Kelburne, Wellington

13/7362

2 December 1913

Rev. A. W. H. Compton

No	877
Date of Notice	2 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Cleveland Johnson	Lillian Beatrice Evelyn Plummer
	💍 1913/7624
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Michaels Church, Kelburne, Wellington
Folio	13/7362
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. W. H. Compton

878

2 December 1913

James Robertson Bowden-Smith
Jane Catherine Logan

James Robertson Bowden-Smith
Jane Catherine Logan
💍 1913/3586

Widower
Spinster

Stockjobber

43
27

Wellington
Wellington

11 weeks
17 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral

13/7366

2 December 1913

Ven. Arch. Fancourt

No	878
Date of Notice	2 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Robertson Bowden-Smith	Jane Catherine Logan
	💍 1913/3586
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Stockjobber
Age	43	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 weeks	17 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral
Folio	13/7366
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Ven. Arch. Fancourt

879

2 December 1913

Clement Woodfine Lankshear
Olive Annie Lerwill

Clement Woodfine Lankshear
Olive Annie Lerwill
💍 1913/7659

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter & Joiner

23
22

Wadestown
Wellington

22 years
Life

Salvation Army Hall, Constable Street, Wellington

13/7399

2 December 1913

Brigadier A. B. Carmichael

No	879
Date of Notice	2 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clement Woodfine Lankshear	Olive Annie Lerwill
	💍 1913/7659
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter & Joiner
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wadestown	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	Life
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall, Constable Street, Wellington
Folio	13/7399
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Brigadier A. B. Carmichael

880

3 December 1913

Ludwig Brass
Georgina Lawson

Ludwig Crass
Georgina Lawson
💍 1913/7609

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
5 weeks

The Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington

13/7329

3 December 1913

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	880
Date of Notice	3 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ludwig Brass	Georgina Lawson
BDM Match (96%)	Ludwig Crass	Georgina Lawson
	💍 1913/7609
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	The Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	13/7329
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 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).