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 1911

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar R. E. Comyns

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

251

8 March 1921

Graham William Ward
Edith Gertrude Dommett

Graham William Ward
Edith Gertrude Dommett
💍 1921/2676

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

19
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
1 week

Registrar's Office, Wellington

688

Frederick Charles Ward, Father; Minnie Dommett, Mother

8 March 1921

Registrar

No	251
Date of Notice	8 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Graham William Ward	Edith Gertrude Dommett
	💍 1921/2676
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	688
Consent	Frederick Charles Ward, Father; Minnie Dommett, Mother
Date of Certificate	8 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

252

8 March 1921

Cornelius Sullivan
Myrtle Smith Lawrence

Cornelius Sullivan
Myrtle Smith Lawrence
💍 1921/2677

Divorced (Decree Absolute 29-1-1919)
Divorced (Decree Absolute 1-3-1921)

Tramway Inspector

38
34

Wellington
Wellington

38 years
6 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

689

8 March 1921

Registrar

No	252
Date of Notice	8 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cornelius Sullivan	Myrtle Smith Lawrence
	💍 1921/2677
Condition	Divorced (Decree Absolute 29-1-1919)	Divorced (Decree Absolute 1-3-1921)
Profession	Tramway Inspector
Age	38	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	38 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	689
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

253

9 March 1921

Oswald Arthur Welch
Ethel White

Oswald Arthur Welch
Ethel White
💍 1921/2678

Bachelor
Spinster

Manufacturer's Representative

35
34

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
3 days

St Peter's Church, Wellington

690

9 March 1921

H. Watson, Anglican

No	253
Date of Notice	9 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oswald Arthur Welch	Ethel White
	💍 1921/2678
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Manufacturer's Representative
Age	35	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	690
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1921
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

254

9 March 1921

Herbert Edward Baldwin
Winifred Hodgkinson

Herbert Edward Baldwin
Winifred Hodgkinson
💍 1921/2679

Bachelor
Spinster

Minister of Religion

29
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St John's Church, Wellington

691

9 March 1921

J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	254
Date of Notice	9 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Edward Baldwin	Winifred Hodgkinson
	💍 1921/2679
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Minister of Religion
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Wellington
Folio	691
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Gibb, Presbyterian

255

9 March 1921

Walter Woods
Myrie Hanaka Park

Walter Woods
Myrie Wanaka Park
💍 1921/2680

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

24
21

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

3 weeks

Church of England, Johnsonville

692

9 March 1921

C. H. Isaacson, Anglican

No	255
Date of Notice	9 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Woods	Myrie Hanaka Park
BDM Match (97%)	Walter Woods	Myrie Wanaka Park
	💍 1921/2680
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England, Johnsonville
Folio	692
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1921
Officiating Minister	C. H. Isaacson, 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).