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 1551

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

17 January 1914

Arthur Wiemann
Franzis Thönke

Arthur Wiemann
Franzis Monke
💍 1914/321

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

33
20

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
1 year

Registrar's Office, Wellington

No person in New Zealand having authority by Law to give consent

31 January 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	17 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Wiemann	Franzis Thönke
BDM Match (87%)	Arthur Wiemann	Franzis Monke
	💍 1914/321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	12
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by Law to give consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

19 January 1914

William David Phillips
Elizabeth Chapman

William David Phillips
Elizabeth Chapman
💍 1914/7310

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

31
32

Porirua
Porirua

4 years
7 years

St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

1172

19 January 1914

Rev. J. Symons

No	42
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William David Phillips	Elizabeth Chapman
	💍 1914/7310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	4 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	1172
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Symons

19 January 1914

Gerald Geoffrey Polh
Eileen Mary Veronica Flynn

Gerald Geoffrey Potts
Eileen May Veronica Flynn
💍 1914/7311

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
13 days

St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

1173

19 January 1914

Rev. J. Symons

No	43
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gerald Geoffrey Polh	Eileen Mary Veronica Flynn
BDM Match (91%)	Gerald Geoffrey Potts	Eileen May Veronica Flynn
	💍 1914/7311
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	13 days
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	1173
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Symons

19 January 1914

Walter Edward Reid
Mary Ellen Macarthy

Walter Edward Reid
Mary Ellen Macarthy
💍 1914/9238

Bachelor
Widow 19 August 1912

Merchant

43
39

Wellington
Wellington

40 years
33 years

Sacred Heart Basilica, Wellington

4311

19 January 1914

Arch. F. Redwood

No	44
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Edward Reid	Mary Ellen Macarthy
	💍 1914/9238
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 19 August 1912
Profession	Merchant
Age	43	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	40 years	33 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica, Wellington
Folio	4311
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Arch. F. Redwood

19 January 1914

John Cotter
Kathleen Bransfield

John Cotter
Kathleen Bransfield
💍 1914/7205

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

37
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

20 months
6 months

St Peter's & St Paul's Church, Lower Hutt

1065

19 January 1914

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	45
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cotter	Kathleen Bransfield
	💍 1914/7205
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	37	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	20 months	6 months
Marriage Place	St Peter's & St Paul's Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	1065
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

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).