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 1558

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

28 January 1914

Charles Arthur Taylor
Mildred Swindale

Charles Arthur Taylor
Mildred Swindale
💍 1914/331

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 19 Dec 1911

Engine Driver

31
32

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
2 months

Registrar's office, Wellington

28 January 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	76
Date of Notice	28 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Arthur Taylor	Mildred Swindale
	💍 1914/331
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 19 Dec 1911
Profession	Engine Driver
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Wellington
Folio	21
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

28 January 1914

David Hodges
Ella Grace Young

David Hodges
Ella Grace Young
💍 1914/6976

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
21

Wellington
Lower Hutt

11 years
4 years

Residence of Mr. W. Hodges, 45 Thorndon Quay, Wellington

978

28 January 1914

Rev. W. Shirer

No	77
Date of Notice	28 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Hodges	Ella Grace Young
	💍 1914/6976
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	11 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Hodges, 45 Thorndon Quay, Wellington
Folio	978
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

30 January 1914

Edwin Coleman Springett Sindel
Bessie Evelyn Parsons

Edwin Coleman Springett Sindel
Bessie Evelyn Parsons
💍 1914/7215

Bachelor
Spinster

Indent Agent

35
24

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
1 year

Elite Registry office, 326 Lambton Quay, Wellington

1074

30 January 1914

Rev. W. J. Comrie

No	78
Date of Notice	30 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Coleman Springett Sindel	Bessie Evelyn Parsons
	💍 1914/7215
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Indent Agent
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Elite Registry office, 326 Lambton Quay, Wellington
Folio	1074
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Comrie

30 January 1914

James McBean
May Bowie

James McBean
May Bowie
💍 1914/6987

Bachelor
Spinster

Committee Clerk

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
24 years

Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington

979

30 January 1914

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	79
Date of Notice	30 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McBean	May Bowie
	💍 1914/6987
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Committee Clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	979
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

30 January 1914

Reginald Dudley
Bessie Evelyn Myrtle Marshment

Reginald Dudley
Bessie Evelyn Myrtle Marshment
💍 1914/6994

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

19
19

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
19 years

Residence of Mrs. Marshment, 2 Minerva St, Wellington

980

Reginald Dudley, Father; Charlotte Jane Marshment, Mother

30 January 1914

Rev. W. Shirer

No	80
Date of Notice	30 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Dudley	Bessie Evelyn Myrtle Marshment
	💍 1914/6994
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Marshment, 2 Minerva St, Wellington
Folio	980
Consent	Reginald Dudley, Father; Charlotte Jane Marshment, Mother
Date of Certificate	30 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).