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 1889

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar J. J. Killy

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

141

7 February 1921

Martin Bourke Burton
Gertrude Louise Urlic

Martin Bourke Burton
Gertrude Louisa Airlie
💍 1921/2619

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
1 year

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

580

7 February 1921

Rev. A. Doherty, Roman Catholic

No	141
Date of Notice	7 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Bourke Burton	Gertrude Louise Urlic
BDM Match (91%)	Martin Bourke Burton	Gertrude Louisa Airlie
	💍 1921/2619
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	580
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Doherty, Roman Catholic

142

7 February 1921

Mark Francis O'Shaughnessy
Mary Evangeline Brooks

Mark Francis O'Shaughnessy
Mary Evangeline Brooks
💍 1921/2620

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
5 years

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

581

7 February 1921

Rev. P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	142
Date of Notice	7 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mark Francis O'Shaughnessy	Mary Evangeline Brooks
	💍 1921/2620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	581
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

143

8 February 1921

Frank King
Minnie Barbara Mahoney

Frank King
Minnie Barbara Mahoney
💍 1921/2621

Widower (Divorced 21/1/1913)
Divorced (Decree Absolute 2/9/1919)

Labourer

43
33

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
3 years

Registrar's Office

582

8 February 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	143
Date of Notice	8 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank King	Minnie Barbara Mahoney
	💍 1921/2621
Condition	Widower (Divorced 21/1/1913)	Divorced (Decree Absolute 2/9/1919)
Profession	Labourer
Age	43	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	582
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

144

8 February 1921

Francis Dalvie Stewart
Winifred Mary Taylor

Francis Ogilvie Stewart
Winifred Mary Taylor
💍 1921/10873

Bachelor
Spinster

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
21 months

Presbyterian Manse

583

8 February 1921

Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	144
Date of Notice	8 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Dalvie Stewart	Winifred Mary Taylor
BDM Match (94%)	Francis Ogilvie Stewart	Winifred Mary Taylor
	💍 1921/10873
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession
Age		22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	21 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse
Folio	583
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

145

8 February 1921

Thomas Noël Usher
Alice Cornwall

Thomas Noel Usher
Alice Cornwall
💍 1921/2622

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

38
30

Wellington
Cobden, Greymouth

20 years

St. Peter's Church

584

8 February 1921

Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	145
Date of Notice	8 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Noël Usher	Alice Cornwall
BDM Match (94%)	Thomas Noel Usher	Alice Cornwall
	💍 1921/2622
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Cobden, Greymouth
Length of Residence		20 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church
Folio	584
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor, 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).