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 1563

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

101

7 February 1914

Walter Arthur Howell known as Walter Arthur Burbery
Elizabeth Bradnock

Walter Arthur Burbour
Elizabeth Bradnock
💍 1914/343

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram Conductor

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
21 years

Registrar's office Wellington

7 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	101
Date of Notice	7 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Arthur Howell known as Walter Arthur Burbery	Elizabeth Bradnock
BDM Match (68%)	Walter Arthur Burbour	Elizabeth Bradnock
	💍 1914/343
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Wellington
Folio	26
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

102

7 February 1914

Leonard Edwards
Frances Ivy Ainsworth Clifford

Leonard Edwards
Frances Ivy Ainsworth Clifford
💍 1914/7219

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
18

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

22 years
15 years

Presbyterian Church Upper Hutt

1055

Annie Whiteman Mother

7 February 1914

Rev. F. J. Usher

No	102
Date of Notice	7 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Edwards	Frances Ivy Ainsworth Clifford
	💍 1914/7219
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	22 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Upper Hutt
Folio	1055
Consent	Annie Whiteman Mother
Date of Certificate	7 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Usher

103

7 February 1914

Thomas William Thwaites
Mary Annie Corti Vannini

Thomas William Thwaites
Mary Annie Corti Vannini
💍 1914/8305

Bachelor
Spinster

Telephone Linesman

30
23

Palmerston North
Kilbirnie

9 months
18 months

Roman Catholic Church Kilbirnie

1920

7 February 1914

Rev. J. Herring

No	103
Date of Notice	7 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas William Thwaites	Mary Annie Corti Vannini
	💍 1914/8305
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telephone Linesman
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	9 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Kilbirnie
Folio	1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Herring

104

9 February 1914

Joseph Sydney Reed
Florence Gertrude Astridge

Joseph Sydney Reed
Florence Gertrude Astridge
💍 1914/7221

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

24
31

Trentham
Trentham

3 days
2 years

St John's Church Trentham

1057

9 February 1914

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	104
Date of Notice	9 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Sydney Reed	Florence Gertrude Astridge
	💍 1914/7221
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	24	31
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Trentham
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Trentham
Folio	1057
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

105

9 February 1914

Arthur Moody Holmes
Tera Louise Greville

Arthur Moody Holmes
Vera Louise Greville
💍 1914/7226

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

26
25

Wellington
Brooklyn

17 years
12 years

St Matthew's Church Brooklyn

1078

9 February 1914

Rev. C. J. Smith

No	105
Date of Notice	9 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Moody Holmes	Tera Louise Greville
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Moody Holmes	Vera Louise Greville
	💍 1914/7226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	17 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Brooklyn
Folio	1078
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Smith

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).