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 1899

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar A. M. 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

191

22 February 1921

Edward Alexander Benjamin Kruger
Phyllis Thelma Veronica Robinson

Edward Alexander Benjamin Kruger
Phyllis Thelma Veronica Robinson
💍 1921/2668

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

20
16

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
15 years

Registrar's Office

630

Ellen Thuga [illegible] (Mother), Baltherm Lilian [illegible] (Father)

22 February 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	191
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Alexander Benjamin Kruger	Phyllis Thelma Veronica Robinson
	💍 1921/2668
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	20	16
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	630
Consent	Ellen Thuga [illegible] (Mother), Baltherm Lilian [illegible] (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

192

22 February 1921

Henry James Gill
Dorothy Rowcock

Henry James Gill
Dorothy Bowcock
💍 1921/2669

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic
Spinster

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
13 years

St. Mary's Church

631

James Henry Gill (Father)

22 February 1921

Rev. C. H. Antrew, Church of England

No	192
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Gill	Dorothy Rowcock
BDM Match (97%)	Henry James Gill	Dorothy Bowcock
	💍 1921/2669
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic	Spinster
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church
Folio	631
Consent	James Henry Gill (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Antrew, Church of England

193

22 February 1921

Eric Borthwick Browne
Jessie Williams

Eric Borthwick Browne
Jessie Williams
💍 1921/2670

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Spinster

27
19

Waitohi
Waitohi

9 years

Residence of Bride's Parents

632

Charles Henry Williams (Father)

22 February 1921

A. M. Blinnie, Presbyterian

No	193
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Borthwick Browne	Jessie Williams
	💍 1921/2670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Spinster
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Waitohi	Waitohi
Length of Residence	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bride's Parents
Folio	632
Consent	Charles Henry Williams (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	A. M. Blinnie, Presbyterian

194

22 February 1921

Patrick Rogers
Ailean Doris Harding

Patrick Rogers
Ailean Doris Harding
💍 1921/2671

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee
Spinster

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

4 years

The Basilica of St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street

633

Cecilia Shard [illegible] (Mother)

22 February 1921

Rev. H. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	194
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Rogers	Ailean Doris Harding
	💍 1921/2671
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee	Spinster
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica of St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street
Folio	633
Consent	Cecilia Shard [illegible] (Mother)
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

195

22 February 1921

Arthur Alfred Hawthorn
Margaret Ada Garth

Arthur Alfred Hawkins
Margaret Ada Garth
💍 1921/8879

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
Spinster

28
35

Wellington
Wellington

22 February 1921

Rev. P. J. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	195
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Alfred Hawthorn	Margaret Ada Garth
BDM Match (89%)	Arthur Alfred Hawkins	Margaret Ada Garth
	💍 1921/8879
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	Spinster
Age	28	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Cullen, Roman Catholic

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).