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 1633

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

446

28 May 1914

Daniel Edward McGrath
Kathleen Mary Ellen Nyhan

Daniel Edward McGrath
Kathleen Mary Ellen Nyhan
💍 1914/8454

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

27
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

9 months
7 months

Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt

14/2147

28 May 1914

Rev. T. Walsh

No	446
Date of Notice	28 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Edward McGrath	Kathleen Mary Ellen Nyhan
	💍 1914/8454
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	9 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt
Folio	14/2147
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Walsh

447

28 May 1914

Archibald McIntyre
Annie Brownlow

Archibald McIntyre
Annie Brownlow
💍 1914/8367

Bachelor
Spinster

Maltster

31
37

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
9 years

St. Peters Church Wellington

14/2061

28 May 1914

Arch. C. C. Harper

No	447
Date of Notice	28 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald McIntyre	Annie Brownlow
	💍 1914/8367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Maltster
Age	31	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church Wellington
Folio	14/2061
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Arch. C. C. Harper

448

28 May 1914

James Edward Devine
Ruth Angus Haigh Pelling

James Edward Devine
Ruth Angus High Pelling
💍 1914/8450

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
20

Whiteman's Valley
Upper Hutt

Life
6 years

St. Hilda's Church Upper Hutt

14/2144

Edward Pelling Father

28 May 1914

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	448
Date of Notice	28 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Edward Devine	Ruth Angus Haigh Pelling
BDM Match (98%)	James Edward Devine	Ruth Angus High Pelling
	💍 1914/8450
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Whiteman's Valley	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	Life	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Hilda's Church Upper Hutt
Folio	14/2144
Consent	Edward Pelling Father
Date of Certificate	28 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

449

29 May 1914

Nelson Weeks Hopper
Alice Maud Mary Cross

Nelson Weeks Hopper
Alice Maud Mary Cross
💍 1914/8453

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 23 Nov. 1911.

Storeman

27
32

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
6 months

Residence of Mr. Cross 39 Wallace St Wellington

14/2146

29 May 1914

Brig. J. H. Bray

No	449
Date of Notice	29 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nelson Weeks Hopper	Alice Maud Mary Cross
	💍 1914/8453
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 23 Nov. 1911.
Profession	Storeman
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Cross 39 Wallace St Wellington
Folio	14/2146
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Brig. J. H. Bray

450

29 May 1914

Henry Strude
Thyrza Mary Harlow

Henry Strude
Thyrza May Marlow
💍 1914/8452

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
28

Kilbirnie
Kilbirnie

1 year
Life

Methodist Church Hataitai

14/2145

29 May 1914

Rev. J. Southern

No	450
Date of Notice	29 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Strude	Thyrza Mary Harlow
BDM Match (94%)	Henry Strude	Thyrza May Marlow
	💍 1914/8452
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	1 year	Life
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Hataitai
Folio	14/2145
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Southern

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).