Intentions to Marry, 1921 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840500, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1921 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1921e contains pages 1735-2142, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 1751

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Rangitikei Registrar J. Poland, Deputy Registrar

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

3 January 1921

Ludwig Frederick Ewers
Mary Louisa Christina Johanna Jafson

Ludwig Frederick John Ewers
Mary Louisa Christina Johanna Zajouskowski
💍 1921/1184

Widower (since November 8th, 1919)
Widow (since July 7th, 1911)

Farmer
Domestic Duties

55
49

Marton
Marton

14 days
47 years

Lutheran Church

2292

3 January 1921

Heinrich Hoffmann, Lutheran

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ludwig Frederick Ewers	Mary Louisa Christina Johanna Jafson
BDM Match (80%)	Ludwig Frederick John Ewers	Mary Louisa Christina Johanna Zajouskowski
	💍 1921/1184
Condition	Widower (since November 8th, 1919)	Widow (since July 7th, 1911)
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	55	49
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	14 days	47 years
Marriage Place	Lutheran Church
Folio	2292
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Heinrich Hoffmann, Lutheran

22 January 1921

George Herbert Chivers
Ruth Lindeloff

George Herbert Chivers
Ruth Lindeloff
💍 1921/1185

Bachelor
Widow (since 3rd December 1920)

Cook
Domestic Duties

47
31

Marton Junction
Marton Junction

3 years
3 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages

2293

2 February 1921

J. Poland, Deputy Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	22 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Herbert Chivers	Ruth Lindeloff
	💍 1921/1185
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (since 3rd December 1920)
Profession	Cook	Domestic Duties
Age	47	31
Dwelling Place	Marton Junction	Marton Junction
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages
Folio	2293
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Poland, Deputy Registrar

7 February 1921

Edward Wardell Pearce
Cecilia Rebekah Beckett

Edward Wardell Pearce
Cecilia Rebekah Burns Beckett
💍 1921/1186

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

27
27

Lower Hutt
Marton

27 years

Roman Catholic Church

2294

7 February 1921

John Power, Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	7 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Wardell Pearce	Cecilia Rebekah Beckett
BDM Match (90%)	Edward Wardell Pearce	Cecilia Rebekah Burns Beckett
	💍 1921/1186
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Marton
Length of Residence	27 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	2294
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1921
Officiating Minister	John Power, Roman Catholic

4 February 1921

Raymond Charles Coleman
Ellen Punshill

Raymond Charles Coleman
Ellen Rawcliffe
💍 1921/1188

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

25
31

Bunnythorpe
Marton

2 years
3 years

Methodist Church

2295

9 February 1921

H. T. Beal, Methodist

No	4
Date of Notice	4 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Charles Coleman	Ellen Punshill
BDM Match (73%)	Raymond Charles Coleman	Ellen Rawcliffe
	💍 1921/1188
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	31
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Marton
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church
Folio	2295
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1921
Officiating Minister	H. T. Beal, Methodist

22 February 1921

Kenneth Roy McLeod
Harriet Ellen Alder

Kenneth Roy McLeod
Harriet Ellen Alder
💍 1921/1189

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

22
25

Marton
Marton

3 days
7 days

Church of England

2296

22 February 1921

V. H. Kitecat, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Roy McLeod	Harriet Ellen Alder
	💍 1921/1189
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	3 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	2296
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	V. H. Kitecat, Church of England

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).