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 639

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

746

8 October 1913

Wilfred Hugh Spalton
Wilhelmina Book

Wilfred Hugh Spalton
Wilhelmina Cook
💍 1913/6780

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

32
38

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
25 years

Registrar's Office

13/6489

8 October 1913

Deputy Registrar

No	746
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Hugh Spalton	Wilhelmina Book
BDM Match (97%)	Wilfred Hugh Spalton	Wilhelmina Cook
	💍 1913/6780
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	32	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	13/6489
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

747

8 October 1913

Frank Flipp
Bessie Mary Hill

Frank Flipp
Bessie May Hill
💍 1913/7548

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

27
32

Kilbirnie
Kilbirnie

5 years
6 months

Residence of Mr. G. F. Worth, 27 William Street, Hataitai

13/7287

8 October 1913

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	747
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Flipp	Bessie Mary Hill
BDM Match (97%)	Frank Flipp	Bessie May Hill
	💍 1913/7548
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	5 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G. F. Worth, 27 William Street, Hataitai
Folio	13/7287
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

748

9 October 1913

Henry John Trevethick
Laura Spicer Fawcett

Henry John Trevethick
Laura Spicer Fawcett
💍 1913/6757

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter & Paperhanger

28
17

Rona Bay
Lower Hutt

28 years
17 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

13/6490

George Fawcett, father

9 October 1913

Deputy Registrar

No	748
Date of Notice	9 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry John Trevethick	Laura Spicer Fawcett
	💍 1913/6757
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter & Paperhanger
Age	28	17
Dwelling Place	Rona Bay	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	28 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	13/6490
Consent	George Fawcett, father
Date of Certificate	9 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

749

10 October 1913

Sydney Joseph Treacy
Ella Simpson Moore

Sydney Joseph Treacy
Ella Simpson Moore
💍 1913/6758

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

13/6491

Arthur James Moore, father

10 October 1913

Deputy Registrar

No	749
Date of Notice	10 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Joseph Treacy	Ella Simpson Moore
	💍 1913/6758
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	13/6491
Consent	Arthur James Moore, father
Date of Certificate	10 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

750

10 October 1913

Walter Boocock
Margaret Alice Dandy

Walter Boocock
Margaret Alice Dandy
💍 1913/7647

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

24
27

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
9 months

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street

13/7410

10 October 1913

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	750
Date of Notice	10 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Boocock	Margaret Alice Dandy
	💍 1913/7647
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street
Folio	13/7410
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

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).