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 1545

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1914 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

6 January 1914

Robert Edward Sissons
Lois Elise d'Emden

Robert Edward Sissons
Lois Elsie D'Emden
💍 1914/1848

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
16 years

St Thomas' Church, Wellington South

14/5520

6 January 1914

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	11
Date of Notice	6 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Edward Sissons	Lois Elise d'Emden
BDM Match (92%)	Robert Edward Sissons	Lois Elsie D'Emden
	💍 1914/1848
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	16 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church, Wellington South
Folio	14/5520
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

7 January 1914

Arnold Hastings Rudolph Hood
Frances Clara Wright

Arnold Hastings Rudolph Hood
Frances Clara Wright
💍 1914/6989

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 months

St Mark's Church, Wellington

14/998

7 January 1914

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	12
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arnold Hastings Rudolph Hood	Frances Clara Wright
	💍 1914/6989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	14/998
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

8 January 1914

Oswald Montague Smith
Lucy Noel

Oswald Montague Smith
Lucy Mee
💍 1914/318

Bachelor
Spinster

Journalist

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
6 weeks

Registrar's Office, Wellington

14/1

8 January 1914

Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	8 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oswald Montague Smith	Lucy Noel
BDM Match (83%)	Oswald Montague Smith	Lucy Mee
	💍 1914/318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Journalist
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	14/1
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Registrar

8 January 1914

William Joseph White
Mary Teresa McConnell

William Joseph White
Mary Teresa McConnell
💍 1914/7203

Widower 16 June 1911
Spinster

Bootmaker

43
19

Wellington
Wellington

6 weeks
6 weeks

St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

14/1063

Margaret McConnell, Mother

8 January 1914

Rev. D. Hurley

No	14
Date of Notice	8 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph White	Mary Teresa McConnell
	💍 1914/7203
Condition	Widower 16 June 1911	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	43	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	14/1063
Consent	Margaret McConnell, Mother
Date of Certificate	8 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

9 January 1914

William Fullforth
Ada Winifred Gilbert

William Fullforth
Ada Winifred Gilbert
💍 1914/329

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

24
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
6 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

14/2

No person in New Zealand authorised to give consent

23 January 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	15
Date of Notice	9 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Fullforth	Ada Winifred Gilbert
	💍 1914/329
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	14/2
Consent	No person in New Zealand authorised to give consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy 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).