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 538

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1913 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodgkins

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

266

27 March 1913

Thomas Henry Fletcher
Sarah Warrington Fry

Thomas Henry Fletcher
Sara Warrington Fry
💍 1913/3756

Bachelor
Spinster

Mental Hospital Attendant

37
40

Porirua
Wellington

4 years
4 years

Sacred Heart Basilica, Wellington

13/3231

27 March 1913

Rev. J. P. Hickson

No	266
Date of Notice	27 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Fletcher	Sarah Warrington Fry
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Henry Fletcher	Sara Warrington Fry
	💍 1913/3756
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mental Hospital Attendant
Age	37	40
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica, Wellington
Folio	13/3231
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Hickson

267

28 March 1913

Will Appleton
Mary Ellen Munro

Will Appleton
Mary Helen Munro
💍 1913/2515

Bachelor
Spinster

Advertising Manager

24
25

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
Life

Residence of Mrs. Munro, Wairoa Road, Karori

13/1984

28 March 1913

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	267
Date of Notice	28 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Will Appleton	Mary Ellen Munro
BDM Match (94%)	Will Appleton	Mary Helen Munro
	💍 1913/2515
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Advertising Manager
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Munro, Wairoa Road, Karori
Folio	13/1984
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

268

28 March 1913

Percival John Kivell
Annie Lindsay

Percival John Kivell
Annie Lindsay
💍 1913/3748

Bachelor
Spinster

Artilleryman

27
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
Life

St. James Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington

13/3245

28 March 1913

Rev. W. Shirer

No	268
Date of Notice	28 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival John Kivell	Annie Lindsay
	💍 1913/3748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artilleryman
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	13/3245
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

269

28 March 1913

Frank Noakin
Mary Ellen Russell

Frank Makin
Mary Ellen Russell
💍 1913/3423

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

25
23

Wellington
Karori

23 years
23 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

13/3297

28 March 1913

Rev. A. J. Johnson

No	269
Date of Notice	28 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Noakin	Mary Ellen Russell
BDM Match (92%)	Frank Makin	Mary Ellen Russell
	💍 1913/3423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Karori
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	13/3297
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Johnson

270

29 March 1913

Ernest Lincoln Redmond
Violet Mary Murray Clark

Ernest Lincoln Redmond
Violet Mary Murray Clark
💍 1913/776

Bachelor
Spinster

Shop Assistant

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

24 years
22 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

13/157

29 March 1913

Registrar

No	270
Date of Notice	29 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Lincoln Redmond	Violet Mary Murray Clark
	💍 1913/776
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shop Assistant
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	24 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	13/157
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).