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 1985

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Wellington

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

619

8 June 1921

Peter Cutbert Boyle
Florence Robina Palmer

Peter Cuthbert Boyle
Florence Robina Anderson Palmer
💍 1921/10340

Bachelor
Spinster

Student

33
27

Auckland
Wellington

4 years
26 years

Residence of Brides Father

3211

8 June 1921

Rev. B. B. Hutson, Presbyterian

No	619
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Cutbert Boyle	Florence Robina Palmer
BDM Match (83%)	Peter Cuthbert Boyle	Florence Robina Anderson Palmer
	💍 1921/10340
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Student
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Brides Father
Folio	3211
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. B. Hutson, Presbyterian

620

8 June 1921

William Nixon Walker
Rosalind South McGill

William Nixon Walker
Rosalind Southcott McGill
💍 1921/10341

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

43
25

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
25 years

Methodist Church, Tararaki Street, Wellington

3212

8 June 1921

Rev. J. F. Chapman, Methodist

No	620
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Nixon Walker	Rosalind South McGill
BDM Match (92%)	William Nixon Walker	Rosalind Southcott McGill
	💍 1921/10341
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	43	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Tararaki Street, Wellington
Folio	3212
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Chapman, Methodist

621

8 June 1921

Hugh Benjamin Davies
Mary Day

Hugh Benjamin Savidge
Mary Day
💍 1921/10342

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

33
34

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
8 years

St. Peters Church, Wellington

3213

8 June 1921

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	621
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Benjamin Davies	Mary Day
BDM Match (91%)	Hugh Benjamin Savidge	Mary Day
	💍 1921/10342
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	3213
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

622

8 June 1921

Charles Joseph Russell
Isabella Farguharson

Charles Addis Knight Russell
Isabella Hughes
💍 1921/440

Bachelor
Widow

Carpenter

47
52

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 year

Residence of Farguharson, 108 Tory Street, Wellington

3214

8 June 1921

Rev. M. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	622
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Joseph Russell	Isabella Farguharson
BDM Match (62%)	Charles Addis Knight Russell	Isabella Hughes
	💍 1921/440
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Carpenter
Age	47	52
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Farguharson, 108 Tory Street, Wellington
Folio	3214
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Elliott, Presbyterian

623

8 June 1921

Edmund Scott Cook
Janet Warner Duff

Edmund George Cook
Janet Warner Duff
💍 1921/10344

Bachelor
Spinster

Music Hall Artist

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
6 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

3215

8 June 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	623
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Scott Cook	Janet Warner Duff
BDM Match (86%)	Edmund George Cook	Janet Warner Duff
	💍 1921/10344
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Music Hall Artist
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	3215
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 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).