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 1554

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

21 January 1914

Edward Charles Doyle
Ellen Catherine Lee

Edward Charles Doyle
Ellen Catherine Lee
💍 1914/8301

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
life

St Anne's Church, Wellington South

1917

21 January 1914

Rev. W. Peoples

No	56
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Charles Doyle	Ellen Catherine Lee
	💍 1914/8301
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	life
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	1917
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Peoples

21 January 1914

Alfred Percy Hill King
Alice Agnes Gardiner

Alfred Percy Hill King
Alice Agnes Gardiner
💍 1914/6990

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

36
26

Wellington
Wellington

32 years
20 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

999

21 January 1914

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	57
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Percy Hill King	Alice Agnes Gardiner
	💍 1914/6990
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	32 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	999
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

21 January 1914

Henry Marshall
Cleo Phoebe Ferris

Henry Marshall
Cleo Phoebe Ferris
💍 1914/7208

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

23
19

Wellington
Lower Hutt

23 years
19 years

St Peter's & St Paul's Church, Lower Hutt

1068

Rose Emily Loonar, Mother

21 January 1914

Rev. J. Symons

No	58
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Marshall	Cleo Phoebe Ferris
	💍 1914/7208
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	23 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's & St Paul's Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	1068
Consent	Rose Emily Loonar, Mother
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Symons

21 January 1914

William Joseph Byrne
Mary Bell Williams

William Joseph Byrne
Mary Bell Williams
💍 1914/7206

William James Reese
Martha Williams
💍 1915/7600

William John Jones
May Williams
💍 1914/4468

Bachelor
Spinster

Cartage Contractor

34
33

Lyall Bay
Lyall Bay

3 days
3 days

All Saint's Church, Kilbirnie

1066

21 January 1914

Rev. H. G. Blackburne

No	59
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Byrne	Mary Bell Williams
	💍 1914/7206
BDM Match (63%)	William James Reese	Martha Williams
	💍 1915/7600
BDM Match (63%)	William John Jones	May Williams
	💍 1914/4468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cartage Contractor
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay	Lyall Bay
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saint's Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	1066
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Blackburne

21 January 1914

William James Ross
Laura Emily Grave

William James Ross
Laura Emily Grave
💍 1914/6991

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

30
34

Palmerston North
Wellington

2 days
18 months

St Mark's Church, Wellington

1000

21 January 1914

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	60
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Ross	Laura Emily Grave
	💍 1914/6991
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	30	34
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days	18 months
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	1000
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

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).