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 1567

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

121

12 February 1914

Mathew Heslop Dixon
Gertrude Virginia Gray

Matthew Heslop Dixon
Gertrude Virginia Gray
💍 1914/7245

Divorced decree absolute 24 May 1913
Widow 13 November 1906

Schoolmaster

45
39

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
3 days

Methodist Church, Wellington South

1081

12 February 1914

Rev. J. Ward

No	121
Date of Notice	12 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mathew Heslop Dixon	Gertrude Virginia Gray
BDM Match (98%)	Matthew Heslop Dixon	Gertrude Virginia Gray
	💍 1914/7245
Condition	Divorced decree absolute 24 May 1913	Widow 13 November 1906
Profession	Schoolmaster
Age	45	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Wellington South
Folio	1081
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Ward

122

14 February 1914

George Frederick Burgess
Agnes Longbottom

George Frederick Burgess
Agnes Longbottom
💍 1914/7228

Bachelor
Spinster

Waiter

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
6 years

Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington

1088

14 February 1914

Rev. W. S. Potter

No	122
Date of Notice	14 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Frederick Burgess	Agnes Longbottom
	💍 1914/7228
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waiter
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	1088
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Potter

123

14 February 1914

Francis John Sim
Annie Cope

Francis John Sim
Annie Cope
💍 1914/363

Bachelor
Spinster

Miller

38
36

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

14 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	123
Date of Notice	14 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis John Sim	Annie Cope
	💍 1914/363
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miller
Age	38	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	30
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

124

14 February 1914

Alexander Lockhart
Isabella Scott

Alexander Lockhart
Isabella Scott
💍 1914/364

Widower 1 September 1911
Spinster

Labourer

38
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
Life

Registrar's Office, Wellington

14 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	124
Date of Notice	14 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Lockhart	Isabella Scott
	💍 1914/364
Condition	Widower 1 September 1911	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	38	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	31
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

125

14 February 1914

Thomas George Pearce
Elsie Eliza Reece

Thomas George Pearce
Elsie Eliza Reece
💍 1914/9274

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

32
21

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
20 years

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

4370

14 February 1914

Rev. A. T. Brainsby

No	125
Date of Notice	14 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Pearce	Elsie Eliza Reece
	💍 1914/9274
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	4370
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. Brainsby

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).