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 1875

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar K. Alley

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

20 January 1921

Wilfrid Wulstan Cook
Lucy Hackett

Wilfrid Walston Cook
Lucy Hackett Dixon
💍 1921/2554

Bachelor
Spinster

Registrar

45
38

Wellington
Wellington

40 years

Roman Catholic Church

512

20 January 1921

F. Connolly, Roman Catholic

No	41
Date of Notice	20 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfrid Wulstan Cook	Lucy Hackett
BDM Match (78%)	Wilfrid Walston Cook	Lucy Hackett Dixon
	💍 1921/2554
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Registrar
Age	45	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	40 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	512
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1921
Officiating Minister	F. Connolly, Roman Catholic

21 January 1921

Frederick James Spelman
Ida Miriam Hoare

Frederick James Spelman
Ida Miriam Hoare
💍 1921/2555

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Clerk

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

9 years

St Peter's Church, Willis Street

513

21 January 1921

Thomas Percival Hoare, Anglican

No	42
Date of Notice	21 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick James Spelman	Ida Miriam Hoare
	💍 1921/2555
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Clerk
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Willis Street
Folio	513
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Thomas Percival Hoare, Anglican

21 January 1921

Joseph Frederic Blake
Doris Lillian Stinson

Joseph Frederick Blake
Doris Lillian Stinson
💍 1921/2556

Bachelor
Spinster

Freezing Employee

23
18

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
13 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

514

21 January 1921

Ann Louise Shinson, M[o]ther

No	43
Date of Notice	21 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Frederic Blake	Doris Lillian Stinson
BDM Match (98%)	Joseph Frederick Blake	Doris Lillian Stinson
	💍 1921/2556
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Freezing Employee
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	13 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	514
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Ann Louise Shinson, M[o]ther

21 January 1921

Reginald Henry Lewis
Vera Glencoe Lawston

Reginald Hendre Lewis
Vera Glencoe Lawton
💍 1921/2557

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

30
20

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
6 months

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace

515

21 January 1921

J. K. Elliot, Presbyterian

No	44
Date of Notice	21 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Henry Lewis	Vera Glencoe Lawston
BDM Match (93%)	Reginald Hendre Lewis	Vera Glencoe Lawton
	💍 1921/2557
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace
Folio	515
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1921
Officiating Minister	J. K. Elliot, Presbyterian

21 January 1921

Arthur Arden Jennings
Gifford Anderson Gilbertson

Arthur Arden Jennings
Gifford Anderson Gilbertson
💍 1921/2558

Bachelor
Spinster

Customs Agent

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn

516

21 January 1921

B. Hutton, Presbyterian

No	45
Date of Notice	21 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Arden Jennings	Gifford Anderson Gilbertson
	💍 1921/2558
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Customs Agent
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn
Folio	516
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Hutton, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).