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 1717

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

858

23 October 1914

Fredrick Colgate
Daisy Evelyn Dickenson

Fredrick Colgate
Daisy Evelyn Dickinson
💍 1914/4828

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

21
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
8 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

8677

23 October 1914

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	858
Date of Notice	23 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fredrick Colgate	Daisy Evelyn Dickenson
BDM Match (98%)	Fredrick Colgate	Daisy Evelyn Dickinson
	💍 1914/4828
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	8677
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

859

24 October 1914

John Mahoney
Florence May Keatch

John Mahoney
Florence May Keatch
💍 1914/4822

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

29
17

Newlands
Newlands

3 months
4 months

Residence of Mr. Biggs, 36 Hopper Street, Wellington

8694

Clara Amelia Keatch, mother

24 October 1914

Rev. W. Shirer

No	859
Date of Notice	24 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Mahoney	Florence May Keatch
	💍 1914/4822
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	29	17
Dwelling Place	Newlands	Newlands
Length of Residence	3 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Biggs, 36 Hopper Street, Wellington
Folio	8694
Consent	Clara Amelia Keatch, mother
Date of Certificate	24 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

860

24 October 1914

Arthur Stephens
Winifred Phoebe Cooke

Arthur Stephens
Winifred Phoebe Cooke
💍 1914/9532

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

29
24

Wellington
Johnsonville

7 years
12 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7036

24 October 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	860
Date of Notice	24 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Stephens	Winifred Phoebe Cooke
	💍 1914/9532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	7 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7036
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

861

24 October 1914

Henry Harold Victor Carter
Mary Josephine Martin

Harold Henry Victor Carter
Mary Josephine Martin
💍 1914/4826

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
22

Wellington
Petone

23 years
21 years

St. Augustine's Church, Petone

8675

24 October 1914

Rev. G. B. Stephenson

No	861
Date of Notice	24 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Harold Victor Carter	Mary Josephine Martin
BDM Match (81%)	Harold Henry Victor Carter	Mary Josephine Martin
	💍 1914/4826
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	23 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	8675
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Stephenson

862

27 October 1914

Christopher Bertie Jarvis
Robina Herdman

Christopher Bertie Jarvis
Rubina Herdman
💍 1914/4846

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
3 years

Residence of Miss Herdman, 7 Church Street, Wellington

8666

27 October 1914

Rev. J. Gibb

No	862
Date of Notice	27 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Bertie Jarvis	Robina Herdman
BDM Match (96%)	Christopher Bertie Jarvis	Rubina Herdman
	💍 1914/4846
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Herdman, 7 Church Street, Wellington
Folio	8666
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

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).