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 1905

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar [illegible signature]

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

221

28 February 1921

Douglas Albert Young
Doris Alnia Stevens

Douglas Albert Young
Doris Alma Stevens
💍 1921/1026

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years

St. Barnabas Church, Roseneath, Wellington

658

28 February 1921

Rev. Lanes Jones, Anglican

No	221
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Albert Young	Doris Alnia Stevens
BDM Match (95%)	Douglas Albert Young	Doris Alma Stevens
	💍 1921/1026
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Barnabas Church, Roseneath, Wellington
Folio	658
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Lanes Jones, Anglican

222

28 February 1921

Clarence Christop Hobbs
Maude Ethel Cook

Clarence Christopher Hobbs
Maude Ethel Cook
💍 1921/1027

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

22
21

Silverstream
Lower Hutt

2 years
1 year

Registrar's Office

659

No	222
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Christop Hobbs	Maude Ethel Cook
BDM Match (94%)	Clarence Christopher Hobbs	Maude Ethel Cook
	💍 1921/1027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Silverstream	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	659
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

223

1 March 1921

Baden Francis Redvers Knapp
Kathleen Pearce

Baden Francis Redvers Knapp
Kathleen Pearce
💍 1921/1004

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
8 months

St. Peter's Church

660

1 March 1921

Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	223
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Baden Francis Redvers Knapp	Kathleen Pearce
	💍 1921/1004
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	8 months
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church
Folio	660
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

224

1 March 1921

Sidney Clarence Field
Winifred Kate Horwood

Sydney Clarence Field
Winifred Kate Horwood
💍 1921/1005

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
26

Hawera
Wellington

15 months
9 months

Presbyterian Church

661

Rev. T. I. Read, Presbyterian Methodist

No	224
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Clarence Field	Winifred Kate Horwood
BDM Match (98%)	Sydney Clarence Field	Winifred Kate Horwood
	💍 1921/1005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	661
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. I. Read, Presbyterian Methodist

225

1 March 1921

Richard Frederick Cunliffe
Mary Nellie Hughes

Richard Frederick Cunliffe
Mary Nellie Hughes
💍 1921/1006

Widower (Previous marriage 9/1/1920)
Spinster

Engineering Fitter

35
35

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

19 years
7 years

St. James Church

662

1 March 1921

Rev. C. H. Hansell, Anglican

No	225
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Frederick Cunliffe	Mary Nellie Hughes
	💍 1921/1006
Condition	Widower (Previous marriage 9/1/1920)	Spinster
Profession	Engineering Fitter
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	19 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church
Folio	662
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Hansell, 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).