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 1865

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar H. W. Hilly, 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

10 January 1921

Charles Henry Lockhart Luckie
Alice Emma Bowden

Charles Henry Lockhart Tucker
Alice Emma Bowden
💍 1921/2508

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 30/9/1920

Civil Servant

25
25

Wellington
37 Kent Terrace Wellington

22 years
20 years

Residence of Rev. J. H. Elliott

462

10 January 1921

J. H. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	21
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Lockhart Luckie	Alice Emma Bowden
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Henry Lockhart Tucker	Alice Emma Bowden
	💍 1921/2508
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 30/9/1920
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	37 Kent Terrace Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. H. Elliott
Folio	462
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1921
Officiating Minister	J. H. Elliott, Presbyterian

10 January 1921

Daniel O'Donoghue
Helen Theresa Henry

Daniel O'Donoghue
Helen Theresa Henry
💍 1921/2509

Bachelor
Spinster

Proprietor Livery Stables

37
33

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
6 years

St Patrick's Church

463

J. Connolly, Roman Catholic

No	22
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel O'Donoghue	Helen Theresa Henry
	💍 1921/2509
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Proprietor Livery Stables
Age	37	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Church
Folio	463
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	J. Connolly, Roman Catholic

10 January 1921

Arthur Ernest Johns
Mary Clarice Glading

Arthur Ernest Johns
Mary Clarice Glading
💍 1921/10880

Bachelor
Spinster

Hat Expert

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
21 years

Baptist Church

464

J. H. Ewen, Baptist

No	23
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Ernest Johns	Mary Clarice Glading
	💍 1921/10880
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hat Expert
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church
Folio	464
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	J. H. Ewen, Baptist

10 January 1921

Axel Richard Rilsson
Hilda Rizpah Morris

Axel Richard Nilsson
Hilda Rizpah Morris
💍 1921/2510

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 days

Trinity Church South

465

E. Drake, Methodist

No	24
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Axel Richard Rilsson	Hilda Rizpah Morris
BDM Match (98%)	Axel Richard Nilsson	Hilda Rizpah Morris
	💍 1921/2510
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days
Marriage Place	Trinity Church South
Folio	465
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	E. Drake, Methodist

11 January 1921

Frank Erwin Rutherford
Esther Josephine Ward

Frank Irwin Rutherford
Esther Josephine Ward
💍 1921/10881

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
25

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
12 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral

466

11 January 1921

A. H. Johnson, Anglican

No	25
Date of Notice	11 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Erwin Rutherford	Esther Josephine Ward
BDM Match (98%)	Frank Irwin Rutherford	Esther Josephine Ward
	💍 1921/10881
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	12 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral
Folio	466
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1921
Officiating Minister	A. H. Johnson, Anglican

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).