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 1546

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

9 January 1914

Walter George Harrington
Florence Clara Backhouse

Walter George Harrington
Florence Clara Backhouse
💍 1914/9630

Bachelor
Spinster

Milkman

33
24

Wellington
Wellington

33 years
24 years

St Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

1022

9 January 1914

Arch. C. C. Harper

No	16
Date of Notice	9 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter George Harrington	Florence Clara Backhouse
	💍 1914/9630
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Milkman
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	33 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	1022
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Arch. C. C. Harper

9 January 1914

Harry Miller Finlayson
Clara Bell Taylor

Harry Miller Finlayson
Clara Belle Taylor
💍 1914/7225

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

33
34

Pahautanui
Pahautanui

7 days
34 years

St Albans Church, Pahautanui

1061

9 January 1914

Rev. C. H. Isaacson

No	17
Date of Notice	9 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Miller Finlayson	Clara Bell Taylor
BDM Match (97%)	Harry Miller Finlayson	Clara Belle Taylor
	💍 1914/7225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Pahautanui	Pahautanui
Length of Residence	7 days	34 years
Marriage Place	St Albans Church, Pahautanui
Folio	1061
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Isaacson

9 January 1914

Francis James Scrimgeour
Jane Wedd

Francis James Scrimgeour
Jane Wedd
💍 1914/9282

Bachelor
Spinster

Drover

26
18

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
14 days

Methodist Manse, 17 Goring Street, Wellington

4356

Charles Wedd, Father

9 January 1914

Rev. G. S. Cook

No	18
Date of Notice	9 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis James Scrimgeour	Jane Wedd
	💍 1914/9282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drover
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, 17 Goring Street, Wellington
Folio	4356
Consent	Charles Wedd, Father
Date of Certificate	9 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Cook

10 January 1914

James Campbell
Barbara Rait Edwards

James Campbell
Barbara Raitt Edwards
💍 1914/7201

Bachelor
Spinster

Orchardist

40
38

Wellington
Wellington

3 days * from Fowlis Easter, Scotland
2 days

Presbyterian Office, 235 Lambton Quay, Wellington

1053

10 January 1914

Rev. W. J. Comrie

No	19
Date of Notice	10 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Campbell	Barbara Rait Edwards
BDM Match (98%)	James Campbell	Barbara Raitt Edwards
	💍 1914/7201
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Orchardist
Age	40	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days * from Fowlis Easter, Scotland	2 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Office, 235 Lambton Quay, Wellington
Folio	1053
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Comrie

12 January 1914

Leslie Hesford Angus
Margaret Hall Varney

Leslie Hesford Angus
Margaret Hall Darney
💍 1914/336

Bachelor
Spinster

Indent Agent & Importer

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

14 months
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

12 January 1914

Deputy Registrar

No	20
Date of Notice	12 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Hesford Angus	Margaret Hall Varney
BDM Match (98%)	Leslie Hesford Angus	Margaret Hall Darney
	💍 1914/336
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Indent Agent & Importer
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 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).