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 1566

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

116

11 February 1914

Alexander Bisset
Aline Constance Rutledge

Alexander Bisset
Aline Constance Rutledge
💍 1914/9355

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

27
20

Wellington
Auckland

4 years
6 months

St. Paul's Church, Auckland

4348

Barrett Rutledge, Father

11 February 1914

Rev. C. A. Watson

No	116
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Bisset	Aline Constance Rutledge
	💍 1914/9355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Auckland
Folio	4348
Consent	Barrett Rutledge, Father
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Watson

117

11 February 1914

Percy Gay Williams
Georgina Murphy

Percy Gay Williams
Georgina Murphy
💍 1914/6977

Bachelor
Divorcee decree absolute 10 January 1914

Commercial Traveller

37
37

Eastbourne
Kakaitai

14 years
2 years

St James' Church Vestry, Wellington

987

11 February 1914

Rev. W. Shires

No	117
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Gay Williams	Georgina Murphy
	💍 1914/6977
Condition	Bachelor	Divorcee decree absolute 10 January 1914
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	37	37
Dwelling Place	Eastbourne	Kakaitai
Length of Residence	14 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church Vestry, Wellington
Folio	987
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shires

118

11 February 1914

Charles Henry Faull Known as Johnston
Rachel Gillies

Charles Henry Johnson
Rachel Gillies
💍 1914/6978

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

26
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
16 years

Residence of Mr. W. Gillies, 6 Tennyson Street, Wellington

988

11 February 1914

Rev. W. Shires

No	118
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Faull Known as Johnston	Rachel Gillies
BDM Match (78%)	Charles Henry Johnson	Rachel Gillies
	💍 1914/6978
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	16 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Gillies, 6 Tennyson Street, Wellington
Folio	988
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shires

119

11 February 1914

Harry Robert Garnham
Sylvia Myrtle Liversage

Harry Robert Garnham
Sylvia Myrtle Leversage
💍 1914/6979

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
22 years

St James' Manse, Wellington

989

11 February 1914

Rev. W. Shires

No	119
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Robert Garnham	Sylvia Myrtle Liversage
BDM Match (98%)	Harry Robert Garnham	Sylvia Myrtle Leversage
	💍 1914/6979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St James' Manse, Wellington
Folio	989
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shires

120

11 February 1914

Richard George Barham
Elizabeth Brockford

Richard George Barham
Elizabeth Wrotchford
💍 1914/362

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
12 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

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

25 February 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	120
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard George Barham	Elizabeth Brockford
BDM Match (93%)	Richard George Barham	Elizabeth Wrotchford
	💍 1914/362
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	29
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 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).