Intentions to Marry, 1914 Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840455, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1914 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1914a), Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1914b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1914c).

Page 1165

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar J. James

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

1039

20 October 1914

Frederic Watson Hardingham
Eliza Pick

Frederic Watson Hardingham
Eliza Pick
💍 1914/3788

Widower
Spinster

Organ Builder
Domestic

32
30

Pukehou
Pukehou

3 days
10 months

Registrar's Office, Waipawa

14/7643

20 October 1914

R. Cox, Deputy Registrar, Waipawa

No	1039
Date of Notice	20 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Watson Hardingham	Eliza Pick
	💍 1914/3788
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Organ Builder	Domestic
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Pukehou	Pukehou
Length of Residence	3 days	10 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Waipawa
Folio	14/7643
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1914
Officiating Minister	R. Cox, Deputy Registrar, Waipawa

1040

21 October 1914

John Bruce Leopold Brown
Marjorie Isabel Corskie

John Bruce Leopold Brown
Marjorie Isabel Corskie
💍 1914/3767

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank officer
Domestic

30
24

Dannevirke
Waipawa

6 weeks
24 years

Presbyterian Church, Waipawa

14/7646

21 October 1914

Rev J. Douglas Smith (Presbyterian), Waipawa

No	1040
Date of Notice	21 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bruce Leopold Brown	Marjorie Isabel Corskie
	💍 1914/3767
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank officer	Domestic
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Waipawa
Length of Residence	6 weeks	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waipawa
Folio	14/7646
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Douglas Smith (Presbyterian), Waipawa

1041

7 November 1914

Lewis Albert Stafford
Eva Winters

Lewis Albert Stafford
Eva Winters
💍 1914/3770

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic

29
22

Pukehou
Pukehou

3 years
22 years

Church of England, Te Aute

14/7649

7 November 1914

Rev A. Williams (Anglican), Te Aute

No	1041
Date of Notice	7 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Albert Stafford	Eva Winters
	💍 1914/3770
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Pukehou	Pukehou
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Te Aute
Folio	14/7649
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Williams (Anglican), Te Aute

1042

7 November 1914

Ernest Searle Priest
Violet Florence Saunders

Ernest Searle Priest
Violet Florence Saunders
💍 1914/3769

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

23
22

Pukehou
Pukehou

23 years
3 years

Church of England, Te Aute

14/7648

7 November 1914

Rev A. Williams (Anglican), Te Aute

No	1042
Date of Notice	7 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Searle Priest	Violet Florence Saunders
	💍 1914/3769
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Pukehou	Pukehou
Length of Residence	23 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Te Aute
Folio	14/7648
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Williams (Anglican), Te Aute

1043

14 November 1914

Albert Henry Petrowski
Minnie Winifred Palmer

Albert Henry Petrowski
Minnie Winifred Palmer
💍 1914/3771

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic

24
21

Tikokino
Waipawa

24 years
3 days

Church of England, Waipawa

14/7650

14 November 1914

Rev T. C. Cullwick (Anglican), Waipawa

No	1043
Date of Notice	14 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Henry Petrowski	Minnie Winifred Palmer
	💍 1914/3771
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Tikokino	Waipawa
Length of Residence	24 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of England, Waipawa
Folio	14/7650
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev T. C. Cullwick (Anglican), Waipawa

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).