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 1987

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar [illegible]

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

629

9 June 1921

Oriel Arthur Briscoe
Liliane Fredrica Dawderson

Bachelor
Spinster

Travelling Representative

28
26

Wellington
Ngaio

2 years
3 weeks

Anglican Churchroom

3221

9 June 1921

Rev. W. Handa, Anglican

No	629
Date of Notice	9 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oriel Arthur Briscoe	Liliane Fredrica Dawderson
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Travelling Representative
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Ngaio
Length of Residence	2 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Anglican Churchroom
Folio	3221
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Handa, Anglican

630

10 June 1921

Lowther Thain Dover
Agnes Hilda Burney

Lowther Hainey
Agnes Hilda Burnie
💍 1921/10352

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
4 years

St Mary's Church Karori

3222

10 June 1921

Rev. J. Woodward, Anglican

No	630
Date of Notice	10 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lowther Thain Dover	Agnes Hilda Burney
BDM Match (76%)	Lowther Hainey	Agnes Hilda Burnie
	💍 1921/10352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Karori
Folio	3222
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Woodward, Anglican

631

10 June 1921

Hector Heath Richardson
Gwendoline Maynard Hamblin

Hector Heath Richardson
Gwendoline Margaret Hamlin
💍 1921/10353

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

29
28

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

23 years
12 years

Residence of Bride's Parents

3223

10 June 1921

Rev. J. Merren, Methodist

No	631
Date of Notice	10 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector Heath Richardson	Gwendoline Maynard Hamblin
BDM Match (90%)	Hector Heath Richardson	Gwendoline Margaret Hamlin
	💍 1921/10353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	23 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bride's Parents
Folio	3223
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Merren, Methodist

632

10 June 1921

Reginald Henry Wetherall
Edna Lilian Barnes

Reginald Henry Wetherall
Edna Lilian Barnes
💍 1921/10354

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
26

Wellington
Kilbirnie

28 years
3 weeks

All Saints Church Kilbirnie

3224

10 June 1921

Rev. J. H. Dykes, Anglican

No	632
Date of Notice	10 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Henry Wetherall	Edna Lilian Barnes
	💍 1921/10354
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	28 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie
Folio	3224
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Dykes, Anglican

633

10 June 1921

William Edmund Dooley
Elizabeth Jane Murdoch Millar

William Edmond Cooley
Elizabeth Janet Murdoch Millar
💍 1921/10355

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

28
34

Lower Hutt
Trentham

10 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

3225

10 June 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	633
Date of Notice	10 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edmund Dooley	Elizabeth Jane Murdoch Millar
BDM Match (94%)	William Edmond Cooley	Elizabeth Janet Murdoch Millar
	💍 1921/10355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	28	34
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Trentham
Length of Residence	10 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3225
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 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).