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 1728

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar J. Stanhope

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

913

13 November 1914

Alfred Stanley Tonks
May Ethel Herbert

Alfred Stanley Tonks
May Ethel Herbert
💍 1914/4786

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

20
29

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

Residence of Rev. G. Knowles Smith, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington

8634

15 November 1914

Rev. G. Knowles Smith

No	913
Date of Notice	13 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Stanley Tonks	May Ethel Herbert
	💍 1914/4786
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	20	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. G. Knowles Smith, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington
Folio	8634
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Knowles Smith

914

13 November 1914

Hector Tocker
Clara Priaulx

Hector Tocker
Clara Priaulx
💍 1914/9524

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

8 days
8 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7051

13 November 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	914
Date of Notice	13 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector Tocker	Clara Priaulx
	💍 1914/9524
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 days	8 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7051
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

915

14 November 1914

Ernest Newton Morris
Alice Maud Gale

Ernest Newton Morris
Alice Maude Gale
💍 1914/4759

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

30
27

Northland
Wellington

10 years
2 years

Residence of Mr Wilson, 8 Tainui Terrace, Wellington

8607

14 November 1914

Rev. E. H. Hobday

No	915
Date of Notice	14 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Newton Morris	Alice Maud Gale
BDM Match (97%)	Ernest Newton Morris	Alice Maude Gale
	💍 1914/4759
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Northland	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Wilson, 8 Tainui Terrace, Wellington
Folio	8607
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. H. Hobday

916

16 November 1914

Edward Stanley Forne
Jessie Adams

Edward Stanley Forme
Jessie Stuart Adams
💍 1914/5286

Bachelor
Spinster

Customs Officer

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
3 months

St. Johns Church, Wellington

9212

16 November 1914

Rev. J. Gibb

No	916
Date of Notice	16 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Stanley Forne	Jessie Adams
BDM Match (79%)	Edward Stanley Forme	Jessie Stuart Adams
	💍 1914/5286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Customs Officer
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Wellington
Folio	9212
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

917

16 November 1914

John Hill
Mary Day

John Neill
Mary Day
💍 1914/4801

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

40
40

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
18 years

St Anne's Church, Wellington South

8625

16 November 1914

Archdn. T. Devoy

No	917
Date of Notice	16 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hill	Mary Day
BDM Match (90%)	John Neill	Mary Day
	💍 1914/4801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	40	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	8625
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Archdn. T. Devoy

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).