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 1683

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

696

22 August 1914

Daniel Francis Neill
Grace Emily Frances Oliver

Daniel Francis Neill
Grace Emily Frances Oliver
💍 1914/9422

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

23
20

Nai Nai
Lower Hutt

Life
6 years

Registrar's office, Wellington

5741

Lilly Emily Annie Agnes Harris. Mother

22 August 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	696
Date of Notice	22 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Francis Neill	Grace Emily Frances Oliver
	💍 1914/9422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Nai Nai	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	Life	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Wellington
Folio	5741
Consent	Lilly Emily Annie Agnes Harris. Mother
Date of Certificate	22 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

697

22 August 1914

Charles Leslie Constable
Catherine Marguerite Moynihan

Charles Leslie Constable
Catherine Marguerite Moynihan
💍 1914/1996

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
3 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

5695

22 August 1914

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	697
Date of Notice	22 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Leslie Constable	Catherine Marguerite Moynihan
	💍 1914/1996
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	5695
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

698

22 August 1914

Henry Johnson
Florence Sanders

Henry Johnson
Florence Sanders
💍 1914/2172

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

29
24

Seatoun
Seatoun

2 years
3 days

Congregational Manse, 17 Ellice Avenue, Wellington

5894

22 August 1914

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	698
Date of Notice	22 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Johnson	Florence Sanders
	💍 1914/2172
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Seatoun	Seatoun
Length of Residence	2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Congregational Manse, 17 Ellice Avenue, Wellington
Folio	5894
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

699

22 August 1914

John Herlihy
Mary Foley

John Herlihy
Mary Foley
💍 1914/2148

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorman

30
27

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
2 years

St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

5847

22 August 1914

Rev. D. Hurley

No	699
Date of Notice	22 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Herlihy	Mary Foley
	💍 1914/2148
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorman
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	5847
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

700

22 August 1914

Ralph Chittenden
Ivy Hazel Fullford

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

19
20

Lower Hutt
Brooklyn

6 years
20 years

Residence of Mrs. Chittenden, Bridge St., Lower Hutt

Mary Ann Chittenden Mother. No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent to marriage of bride.

Certificate not issued. Forbidden 1 September 1914

Rev. J. McCaw

No	700
Date of Notice	22 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Chittenden	Ivy Hazel Fullford
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Chittenden, Bridge St., Lower Hutt
Folio
Consent	Mary Ann Chittenden Mother. No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent to marriage of bride.
Date of Certificate	Certificate not issued. Forbidden 1 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw

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).