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 1895

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar 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

171

15 February 1921

Laurence Fraser
Minnie May Frost

Lawrence Fraser
Minnie May Frost
💍 1921/2625

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer Employed

43
29

Wellington
Wellington

14 months
16 months

Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie

610

15 February 1921

Rev. R. H. Catherwood, Presbyterian

No	171
Date of Notice	15 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Fraser	Minnie May Frost
BDM Match (97%)	Lawrence Fraser	Minnie May Frost
	💍 1921/2625
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer Employed
Age	43	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 months	16 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	610
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. H. Catherwood, Presbyterian

172

16 February 1921

William Hifway Pearce
Marion Elizabeth Irvin

William Shipway Pearce
Marion Elizabeth Ivin
💍 1921/2626

Bachelor
Spinster

Government Employee

38
34

Ngaio
Johnsonville

17 years
9 years

Registrar's Office

611

16 February 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	172
Date of Notice	16 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hifway Pearce	Marion Elizabeth Irvin
BDM Match (91%)	William Shipway Pearce	Marion Elizabeth Ivin
	💍 1921/2626
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Government Employee
Age	38	34
Dwelling Place	Ngaio	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	17 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	611
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

173

16 February 1921

William George Roberts
Fanny Barbara Hazelbrook

William George Roberts
Fanny Barbara Hazel Cook
💍 1921/2627

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

25
23

Wellington
Brooklyn

13 years
3 years

Presbyterian Church

612

16 February 1921

Rev. B. Hutton, Presbyterian

No	173
Date of Notice	16 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Roberts	Fanny Barbara Hazelbrook
BDM Match (96%)	William George Roberts	Fanny Barbara Hazel Cook
	💍 1921/2627
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	13 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	612
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Hutton, Presbyterian

174

17 February 1921

Walter Watson Little
Doris Elizabeth Vosper

Walter Watson Little
Doris Elizabeth Vosper
💍 1921/2628

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

30
24

Tarrow
Lower Hutt

2 months
5 months

St. James Church

613

17 February 1921

Rev. W. L. Hansell, Church of England

No	174
Date of Notice	17 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Watson Little	Doris Elizabeth Vosper
	💍 1921/2628
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Tarrow	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 months	5 months
Marriage Place	St. James Church
Folio	613
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. L. Hansell, Church of England

175

17 February 1921

Edwin Bunney
Julia Hutton

Edwin Bunney
Julia Hutton
💍 1921/2629

Bachelor
Divorced absolute 17/7/1920

Ships Seaman

26
34

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
Life

Registrar's Office, Wellington

614

17 February 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	175
Date of Notice	17 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Bunney	Julia Hutton
	💍 1921/2629
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced absolute 17/7/1920
Profession	Ships Seaman
Age	26	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	614
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1921
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).