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 1371

District of Otaki Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar G. Poynter

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

4 February 1914

Bertie Percy Gleeson
Catherine Cecilia Kiely

Bertie Percy Gleeson
Catherine Cecilia Kiely
💍 1914/7337

Bachelor
Spinster

Stock dealer
Domestic Duties

27
29

Manakau
Manakau

6 years
2 years

Roman Catholic Church Otaki

1181

4 February 1914

Francis Melu

No	1
Date of Notice	4 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertie Percy Gleeson	Catherine Cecilia Kiely
	💍 1914/7337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stock dealer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Manakau	Manakau
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Otaki
Folio	1181
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Francis Melu

16 February 1914

John Halford Anderson
Mary Foster

John Halford Anderson
Mary Foster
💍 1914/7340

Bachelor
Widow

Chemist
Domestic Duties

27
31

Stratford
Feilding

18 months
3 months

Roman Catholic Church Otaki

1182

16 February 1914

Francis Melu

No	2
Date of Notice	16 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Halford Anderson	Mary Foster
	💍 1914/7340
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Chemist	Domestic Duties
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Feilding
Length of Residence	18 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Otaki
Folio	1182
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Francis Melu

2 March 1914

Raphael Lancelot Thomson
Mary Collier

Raphael Lancelot Thomson
Mary Collier
💍 1914/7342

Bachelor
Widow

Contractor
Domestic Duties

36
36

Te Horo
Te Horo

11 years
15 years

Methodist Church Te Horo

1184

2 March 1914

Harry Cottom

No	3
Date of Notice	2 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raphael Lancelot Thomson	Mary Collier
	💍 1914/7342
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Te Horo	Te Horo
Length of Residence	11 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Te Horo
Folio	1184
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Harry Cottom

3 March 1914

Bernard Aubrey Baigent
Isabel Mary Edhouse

Bernard Aubrey Baigent
Isabel Mary Edhouse
💍 1914/7341

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway porter
Domestic Duties

29
27

Wellington
Manakau

3 years
4 weeks

Church of England Manakau

1183

3 March 1914

George Francis Petrie

No	4
Date of Notice	3 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard Aubrey Baigent	Isabel Mary Edhouse
	💍 1914/7341
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway porter	Domestic Duties
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Manakau
Length of Residence	3 years	4 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England Manakau
Folio	1183
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1914
Officiating Minister	George Francis Petrie

20 March 1914

Frank William Mitchell
Lottie Pinner

Frank William Mitchell
Lottie Pinner
💍 1914/7343

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy farmer
Domestic Duties

24
22

Otaki
Otaki

17 years
14 days

Church of England Otaki Railway

1185

20 March 1914

George Francis Petrie

No	5
Date of Notice	20 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank William Mitchell	Lottie Pinner
	💍 1914/7343
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Otaki	Otaki
Length of Residence	17 years	14 days
Marriage Place	Church of England Otaki Railway
Folio	1185
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1914
Officiating Minister	George Francis Petrie

20 March 1914

Harold Frederick Ernest Cockrell
Myrtle Ella Row

Harold Frederick Ernest Cockrell
Myrtle Ella Row
💍 1914/7344

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic Duties

34
23

Otaki
Otaki Railway

29 years
5 months

Residence of William John Row Otaki Railway

1186

20 March 1914

Raymond Richards

No	6
Date of Notice	20 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Frederick Ernest Cockrell	Myrtle Ella Row
	💍 1914/7344
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Otaki	Otaki Railway
Length of Residence	29 years	5 months
Marriage Place	Residence of William John Row Otaki Railway
Folio	1186
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Raymond Richards

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).