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 1977

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 September 1914 Registrar Ernest White Cave

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

27 August 1914

Richard Thomas Knowles
Helena Anastasia Sheahan

Richard Thomas Knowles
Helena Anastatia Sheehan
💍 1914/3108

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Duties

27
21

Greymouth
Blaketown

6 years
12 years

St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth

6832

27 August 1914

Rev. Dean D. P. Carew

No	52
Date of Notice	27 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Thomas Knowles	Helena Anastasia Sheahan
BDM Match (96%)	Richard Thomas Knowles	Helena Anastatia Sheehan
	💍 1914/3108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Blaketown
Length of Residence	6 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	6832
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dean D. P. Carew

29 August 1914

Edward St. Harris
Isabella Kathleen Martin

Edward McManus
Isabella Kathleen Martin
💍 1914/3109

Widower
Spinster

Tailor
Tailoress

32
22

Greymouth
Greymouth

4 years
22 years

St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth

6833

29 August 1914

Dean D. P. Carew

No	53
Date of Notice	29 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward St. Harris	Isabella Kathleen Martin
BDM Match (76%)	Edward McManus	Isabella Kathleen Martin
	💍 1914/3109
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Tailor	Tailoress
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	4 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	6833
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Dean D. P. Carew

31 August 1914

William Leonard Curtis
Annie Mary Teresa McKinley

William Leonard Curtis
Annie Mary Teresa McGinley
💍 1914/3110

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine-driver

21
21

Cobden
Greymouth

6 years
20 years

St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth

6834

31 August 1914

Dean D. P. Carew

No	54
Date of Notice	31 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Leonard Curtis	Annie Mary Teresa McKinley
BDM Match (98%)	William Leonard Curtis	Annie Mary Teresa McGinley
	💍 1914/3110
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine-driver
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Cobden	Greymouth
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	6834
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Dean D. P. Carew

1 September 1914

Richard Brownlee Britton
Flora Kennedy

Richard Brownlee Britton
Flora Kennedy
💍 1914/2413

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Fitter
Shop Assistant

26
27

Otira and Greymouth
Cobden

2 months and 3 days
17 days

St. John's Presbyterian Church, Greymouth

6013

1 September 1914

Rev. Wm. Trotter

No	55
Date of Notice	1 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Brownlee Britton	Flora Kennedy
	💍 1914/2413
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Fitter	Shop Assistant
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Otira and Greymouth	Cobden
Length of Residence	2 months and 3 days	17 days
Marriage Place	St. John's Presbyterian Church, Greymouth
Folio	6013
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Trotter

2 September 1914

John Edwin Thomas Parfitt
Kitty Burton

John Edwin Thomas Parfitt
Kitty Burton
💍 1914/2431

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

29
27

Greymouth
Greymouth

15 years
3 years

Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth

6007

2 September 1914

Rev. J. A. Rogers

No	56
Date of Notice	2 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Edwin Thomas Parfitt	Kitty Burton
	💍 1914/2431
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	15 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	6007
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Rogers

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).