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 1548

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

13 January 1914

Charles Albert Young
Winifred Angela Mahon

Charles Albert Young
Winifred Angela Mahon
💍 1914/8300

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
5 years

St Anne's Church Wellington South

1916

13 January 1914

Arch. T. Devoy

No	26
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Albert Young	Winifred Angela Mahon
	💍 1914/8300
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church Wellington South
Folio	1916
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Arch. T. Devoy

13 January 1914

Joseph Foulds Neil
Margaret Ann Neil

Joseph Foulds Hill
Margaret Ann Heil
💍 1914/7308

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

25
27

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
6 years

St Mary of the Angels Church Wellington

1170

13 January 1914

Rev J. Symons

No	27
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Foulds Neil	Margaret Ann Neil
BDM Match (89%)	Joseph Foulds Hill	Margaret Ann Heil
	💍 1914/7308
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Wellington
Folio	1170
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Symons

13 January 1914

Perceval Edward Elliott
Matilda Elizabeth Russell

Percival Edward Elliott
Matilda Elizabeth Russell
💍 1914/7211

Bachelor
Widow 26 May 1910

Carpenter

30
31

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
31 years

Wesley Parsonage Macfarlane Street Wellington

1071

13 January 1914

Rev J. G. Chapman

No	28
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Perceval Edward Elliott	Matilda Elizabeth Russell
BDM Match (98%)	Percival Edward Elliott	Matilda Elizabeth Russell
	💍 1914/7211
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 26 May 1910
Profession	Carpenter
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Parsonage Macfarlane Street Wellington
Folio	1071
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev J. G. Chapman

14 January 1914

John William Goddard
Evelyn Blanche Bradford

John William Goddard
Evelyn Blanche Bradford
💍 1914/87

Bachelor
Spinster

Shop Assistant

36
35

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

14 months
3 weeks

Registrar's Office Wellington

14 January 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	29
Date of Notice	14 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Goddard	Evelyn Blanche Bradford
	💍 1914/87
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shop Assistant
Age	36	35
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	14 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	5
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

14 January 1914

Arthur Newton Griggs
Frances May Brown

Arthur Murton Griggs
Frances May Brown
💍 1914/7213

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

23
20

Miramar
Miramar

2 months
2 months

St Aiden's Church Miramar

1072

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

28 January 1914

Rev. J. G. Castle

No	30
Date of Notice	14 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Newton Griggs	Frances May Brown
BDM Match (93%)	Arthur Murton Griggs	Frances May Brown
	💍 1914/7213
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Miramar	Miramar
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	St Aiden's Church Miramar
Folio	1072
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent.
Date of Certificate	28 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Castle

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).