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 1599

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1914 Registrar Joseph Morant 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

276

3 April 1914

Arthur John Vaughan Lyell
Margaret Dallas Macpherson

Arthur John Vaughan Lyell
Margaret Dalles Macpherson
💍 1914/8528

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

37
37

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 years

St James' Manse, Adelaide Road, Wellington

2271

3 April 1914

Rev. W. Shirer

No	276
Date of Notice	3 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur John Vaughan Lyell	Margaret Dallas Macpherson
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur John Vaughan Lyell	Margaret Dalles Macpherson
	💍 1914/8528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	37	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St James' Manse, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	2271
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

277

3 April 1914

John Percy McTaggart
Alice Leanore Bedford

John Percy McTaggart
Alice Leanor Bedford
💍 1914/2939

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

28
18

Petone
Petone

3 years
9 months

St Augustine's Church, Petone

6666

George Bedford, Father

3 April 1914

Rev. G. B. Stephenson

No	277
Date of Notice	3 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Percy McTaggart	Alice Leanore Bedford
BDM Match (98%)	John Percy McTaggart	Alice Leanor Bedford
	💍 1914/2939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	28	18
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 years	9 months
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	6666
Consent	George Bedford, Father
Date of Certificate	3 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Stephenson

278

3 April 1914

Alfred Russell Lankshear
Gladys Adeline Bindon Chinchen

Alfred Russell Lankshear
Gladys Adeline Bindon Chinchen
💍 1914/9402

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory Manager

24
24

Wellington
Island Bay

23 years
4 years

Methodist Church, Riddiford Street, Wellington

4478

3 April 1914

Rev. J. Ward

No	278
Date of Notice	3 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Russell Lankshear	Gladys Adeline Bindon Chinchen
	💍 1914/9402
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory Manager
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Island Bay
Length of Residence	23 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Riddiford Street, Wellington
Folio	4478
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Ward

279

3 April 1914

William Fritz Nees
Ida Lenzini

William Fritz Nees
Ida Lenzini
💍 1914/8464

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
22 years

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

2134

3 April 1914

Rev. J. K. Ewen

No	279
Date of Notice	3 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Fritz Nees	Ida Lenzini
	💍 1914/8464
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	2134
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Ewen

280

3 April 1914

Ernest Arthur Sellars
Mary Florence O'Donoghue

Ernest Arthur Cooper
Mary Florence Cosgrove
💍 1914/5725

Bachelor
Spinster

Artillery Driver

20
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

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

Deputy Registrar

No	280
Date of Notice	3 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Arthur Sellars	Mary Florence O'Donoghue
BDM Match (69%)	Ernest Arthur Cooper	Mary Florence Cosgrove
	💍 1914/5725
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artillery Driver
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate
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).