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 1686

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

711

26 August 1914

John Henry James Turner
Florence Mable Shakey

John Henry James Turner
Florence Mable Shakey
💍 1914/2178

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
14 months

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

5877

26 August 1914

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	711
Date of Notice	26 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry James Turner	Florence Mable Shakey
	💍 1914/2178
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	14 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	5877
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

712

27 August 1914

William John Taylor
Margaret Cameron

William John Taylor
Margaret Cameron
💍 1914/9425

Bachelor
Widow 10 June 1914

Labourer

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5744

27 August 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	712
Date of Notice	27 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Taylor	Margaret Cameron
	💍 1914/9425
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 10 June 1914
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5744
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

713

27 August 1914

William Edwin Shaw
Mary Garrick Goldsworthy

William Edwin Shaw
Mary Garrick Goldsworthy
💍 1914/2168

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
8 years

Residence of Miss N. White, 182 Sydney Street, Wellington

5891

27 August 1914

Rev. A. C. H. Standage

No	713
Date of Notice	27 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edwin Shaw	Mary Garrick Goldsworthy
	💍 1914/2168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss N. White, 182 Sydney Street, Wellington
Folio	5891
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. H. Standage

714

27 August 1914

Henry Holmes
Olga Stephanie Wilson

Henry Holmes
Olga Stephaine Wilson
💍 1914/2150

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
6 weeks

St. John's Manse, Wellington

5849

27 August 1914

Rev. J. Gibb

No	714
Date of Notice	27 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Holmes	Olga Stephanie Wilson
BDM Match (95%)	Henry Holmes	Olga Stephaine Wilson
	💍 1914/2150
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	6 weeks
Marriage Place	St. John's Manse, Wellington
Folio	5849
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

715

27 August 1914

Henry James Strafford Johnson
Stella Colvin Anderson

Henry James Stratford Johnson
Stella Colvin Anderson
💍 1914/2151

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

Life
20 years

Residence of Mr. Anderson, 34 Talavera Terrace, Wellington

5850

27 August 1914

Rev. J. Gibb

No	715
Date of Notice	27 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Strafford Johnson	Stella Colvin Anderson
BDM Match (98%)	Henry James Stratford Johnson	Stella Colvin Anderson
	💍 1914/2151
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Anderson, 34 Talavera Terrace, Wellington
Folio	5850
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 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).