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 1664

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

601

23 July 1914

Arthur Daniel
Gladys Eveline Shaw

Arthur Daniel
Gladys Eveline Shaw
💍 1914/2188

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

21
18

Petone
Petone

20 years
3 years

Methodist Church Petone

5862

Alfred William Shaw, Father

23 July 1914

Rev. J. J. Lewis

No	601
Date of Notice	23 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Daniel	Gladys Eveline Shaw
	💍 1914/2188
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Petone
Folio	5862
Consent	Alfred William Shaw, Father
Date of Certificate	23 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lewis

602

23 July 1914

Peter John Fitzgerald
Doris Phoebe McEwen

Peter John Fitzgerald
Doris Phoebe McEwen
💍 1914/2197

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

29
22

Northland
Petone

15 years
22 years

Residence of Mr. G. D. McEwen, 55 Britannia Street, Petone

5870

23 July 1914

Rev. J. McCaw

No	602
Date of Notice	23 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter John Fitzgerald	Doris Phoebe McEwen
	💍 1914/2197
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Northland	Petone
Length of Residence	15 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G. D. McEwen, 55 Britannia Street, Petone
Folio	5870
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw

603

22 July 1914

Robert Arthur Chapman
Nellie Gardner

Robert Arthur Chapman
Nellie Gardner
💍 1914/1321

Bachelor
Spinster

Petty Officer Royal Navy

30
30

H.M.S. Pyramus
Wellington

5 years
2 months

St Mary of the Angels Church Wellington

5041

Auckland

23 July 1914

Rev. J. A. O'Connell

No	603
Date of Notice	22 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Arthur Chapman	Nellie Gardner
	💍 1914/1321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Petty Officer Royal Navy
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	H.M.S. Pyramus	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 months
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Wellington
Folio	5041
Consent	Auckland
Date of Certificate	23 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. O'Connell

604

24 July 1914

Gilbert Leonard Taylor
Frances Beatrice Halls

Gilbert Leonard Taylor
Beatrice Frances Halls
💍 1914/2032

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman

26
24

Petone
Petone

20 years
1 year

Registrar's Office Wellington

5707

24 July 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	604
Date of Notice	24 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Leonard Taylor	Frances Beatrice Halls
BDM Match (73%)	Gilbert Leonard Taylor	Beatrice Frances Halls
	💍 1914/2032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	20 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	5707
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

605

25 July 1914

Geoffrey William Waymouth
Marjorie Haigh

Geoffery William Waymouth
Marjorie Haigh
💍 1914/2033

Bachelor
Spinster

Company Branch Manager

27
17

Wellington
Wellington

19 months
12 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

5708

Florence Haigh, Mother

25 July 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	605
Date of Notice	25 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey William Waymouth	Marjorie Haigh
BDM Match (96%)	Geoffery William Waymouth	Marjorie Haigh
	💍 1914/2033
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Company Branch Manager
Age	27	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	5708
Consent	Florence Haigh, Mother
Date of Certificate	25 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).