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 1578

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

176

27 February 1914

William Charles Gill
Katherine Clara Pratt

William Charles Gill
Katherine Clara Pratt
💍 1914/9642

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorcar Driver

31
34

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
1 day (from Grantham England)

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

14/1011

27 February 1914

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	176
Date of Notice	27 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Charles Gill	Katherine Clara Pratt
	💍 1914/9642
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorcar Driver
Age	31	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	1 day (from Grantham England)
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	14/1011
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

177

28 February 1914

William Edward Beasley
Elizabeth Isabella Knott

William Edward Beasley
Elizabeth Isabella Knotts
💍 1914/356

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

14/46

28 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	177
Date of Notice	28 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Beasley	Elizabeth Isabella Knott
BDM Match (98%)	William Edward Beasley	Elizabeth Isabella Knotts
	💍 1914/356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	14/46
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

178

2 March 1914

Frederick William Burnett
Leoni Baldwin

Frederick William Burnett
Leonie Baldwin
💍 1914/8353

Bachelor
Spinster

Telephone Linesman

28
29

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
8 years

St Peter's Church, Wellington

14/2072

2 March 1914

Archdeacon G. G. Harper

No	178
Date of Notice	2 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Burnett	Leoni Baldwin
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick William Burnett	Leonie Baldwin
	💍 1914/8353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telephone Linesman
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	8 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	14/2072
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon G. G. Harper

179

3 March 1914

Francis Henry Brittain
Gladys Adela Smith

Francis Henry Brittain
Gladys Adela Smith
💍 1914/7336

Widower 13 February 1909
Spinster

Stock Inspector

56
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 years

St Mary of the Angels Church Vestry, Wellington

14/1198

3 March 1914

Rev. E. Kimbell

No	179
Date of Notice	3 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Brittain	Gladys Adela Smith
	💍 1914/7336
Condition	Widower 13 February 1909	Spinster
Profession	Stock Inspector
Age	56	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Vestry, Wellington
Folio	14/1198
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Kimbell

180

3 March 1914

William Thomson
Emily Brooks

William Thomson
Emily Brooks
💍 1914/9619

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

20
26

Wellington
Wellington

14 months
3 years

St Paul's Pro-cathedral, Wellington

14/1012

No person resident in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent.

18 March 1914

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	180
Date of Notice	3 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomson	Emily Brooks
	💍 1914/9619
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	20	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-cathedral, Wellington
Folio	14/1012
Consent	No person resident in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent.
Date of Certificate	18 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).