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 1669

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

626

31 July 1914

William Lyell Leers
Winifred Brooke

William Lyell Leers
Winifred Brooke
💍 1914/1874

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

29
27

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
21 years

St Thomas' Church, Wellington

14/5528

31 July 1914

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	626
Date of Notice	31 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lyell Leers	Winifred Brooke
	💍 1914/1874
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	21 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church, Wellington
Folio	14/5528
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

627

31 July 1914

Owen Carroll
Emily Martha Buchanan

Owen Carroll
Emily Martha Buchanan
💍 1914/2141

Bachelor
Widow 20 October 1911

Labourer

34
45

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

Life
10 years

St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

14/5840

31 July 1914

Rev. A. Venning

No	627
Date of Notice	31 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Owen Carroll	Emily Martha Buchanan
	💍 1914/2141
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 20 October 1911
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	45
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	14/5840
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Venning

628

1 August 1914

Leo Benedict Joseph Revell
Mary Ellen Stewart

Leo Joseph Benedict Revell
Mary Ellen Stewart
💍 1914/2122

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
10 months

Sacred Heart Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

14/5820

1 August 1914

Rev. P. W. Tymons

No	628
Date of Notice	1 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Benedict Joseph Revell	Mary Ellen Stewart
BDM Match (73%)	Leo Joseph Benedict Revell	Mary Ellen Stewart
	💍 1914/2122
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	10 months
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	14/5820
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. W. Tymons

629

1 August 1914

Silas John Prabr
Agnes Henaghan

Lilas John Prater
Agnes Henaghan
💍 1914/2142

Bachelor
Widow 29 May 1911

Seaman

40
40

S.S. Komata
Wellington

17 months
6 days

St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

14/5841

1 August 1914

Rev. J. O'Connell

No	629
Date of Notice	1 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Silas John Prabr	Agnes Henaghan
BDM Match (91%)	Lilas John Prater	Agnes Henaghan
	💍 1914/2142
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 29 May 1911
Profession	Seaman
Age	40	40
Dwelling Place	S.S. Komata	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 months	6 days
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	14/5841
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. O'Connell

630

1 August 1914

Sydney Beaumont Fisher
Esther Jane Abbott

Sydney Fisher Beaumont
Esther Jane Abbott
💍 1914/2227

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

24
23

Porirua
Porirua

1 year
6 months

St Anne's Church, Porirua

14/5902

1 August 1914

Rev. C. H. Isaacson

No	630
Date of Notice	1 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Beaumont Fisher	Esther Jane Abbott
BDM Match (68%)	Sydney Fisher Beaumont	Esther Jane Abbott
	💍 1914/2227
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	1 year	6 months
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Porirua
Folio	14/5902
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Isaacson

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).