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 1572

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

146

19 February 1914

James Edward Smith
Harriett Eleanor Ayers

James Edward Smith
Harriett Eleanor Ayers
💍 1914/7233

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
30

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
1 month

Residence of Mrs Lodingham, 209 Adelaide Street, Wellington

1093

19 February 1914

Rev. G. K. Smith

No	146
Date of Notice	19 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Edward Smith	Harriett Eleanor Ayers
	💍 1914/7233
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Lodingham, 209 Adelaide Street, Wellington
Folio	1093
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Smith

147

19 February 1914

John Roberts
Betsy Low

John Roberts
Betsy Low
💍 1914/7262

Bachelor
Widow 3 October 1909

Engineer

34
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
4 years

Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington

1104

19 February 1914

Rev. W. A. Evans

No	147
Date of Notice	19 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Roberts	Betsy Low
	💍 1914/7262
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 3 October 1909
Profession	Engineer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington
Folio	1104
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Evans

148

20 February 1914

Leo Augustus James Lonergan
Josephine Sophia Eastburry McKenna

Leo Augustus James Lonergan
Josephine Sophia Eastburry McKenna
💍 1914/7232

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouse Manager

30 years
27 years

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
1 week

St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

1092

20 February 1914

Rev. D. Hurley

No	148
Date of Notice	20 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Augustus James Lonergan	Josephine Sophia Eastburry McKenna
	💍 1914/7232
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouse Manager
Age	30 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	1 week
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	1092
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

149

20 February 1914

Alfred Bleak
Elizabeth Gudgeon

Alfred Cleak
Elizabeth Gudgeon
💍 1914/346

Divorced decree absolute 11 February 1914
Spinster

Carpenter

44
42

Wellington
Wellington

10 weeks
few hours

Registrar's Office, Wellington

20 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	149
Date of Notice	20 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Bleak	Elizabeth Gudgeon
BDM Match (96%)	Alfred Cleak	Elizabeth Gudgeon
	💍 1914/346
Condition	Divorced decree absolute 11 February 1914	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	44	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 weeks	few hours
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	37
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

150

20 February 1914

Guy McDonald Cromar Dobson
Ellen McNamara

Guy McDonald Cromar Dobson
Ellen McNamara
💍 1914/7235

Bachelor
Spinster

Chauffeur Mechanic

31
17

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
3 years

St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

1095

Mary McNamara, Mother

20 February 1914

Rev. D. Hurley

No	150
Date of Notice	20 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Guy McDonald Cromar Dobson	Ellen McNamara
	💍 1914/7235
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chauffeur Mechanic
Age	31	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	1095
Consent	Mary McNamara, Mother
Date of Certificate	20 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

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).