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 1997

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

679

21 June 1921

Michael Henry Coppel
Annie Campbell

Michael Henry Coppell
Annie Campbell
💍 1921/7371

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheese maker

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 months

Residence of Mr E Tierney 57 Hopper Street

5680

21 June 1921

Rev G H Smith, Methodist

No	679
Date of Notice	21 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Henry Coppel	Annie Campbell
BDM Match (98%)	Michael Henry Coppell	Annie Campbell
	💍 1921/7371
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheese maker
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr E Tierney 57 Hopper Street
Folio	5680
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev G H Smith, Methodist

680

22 June 1921

Frederick Smith
Ellena Thomas

Frederick Smith
Ellena Thomas
💍 1921/312

Bachelor
Spinster

Land and Insurance Agent

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
5 days

St Peters Anglican Church

3268

22 June 1921

Rev H Watson, Anglican

No	680
Date of Notice	22 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Smith	Ellena Thomas
	💍 1921/312
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Land and Insurance Agent
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Anglican Church
Folio	3268
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev H Watson, Anglican

681

22 June 1921

Thomas Munro Thompson
Edith Mary Dexton

Thomas More Thomson
Edith Mary Sexton
💍 1921/313

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
28

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
1 year

Baptist Church Berhampore

3269

22 June 1921

Rev H Ewen, Baptist

No	681
Date of Notice	22 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Munro Thompson	Edith Mary Dexton
BDM Match (88%)	Thomas More Thomson	Edith Mary Sexton
	💍 1921/313
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Berhampore
Folio	3269
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev H Ewen, Baptist

682

22 June 1921

William Edward Brown
Nellie Dinday

William Edward Brown
Nellie Sinclair
💍 1921/315

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

28
27

Sydney
Wellington

20 years

St Thomas Anglican Church

3270

Residence of Rev Kennedy Elliott 3 Kent Terrace Wellington

22 June 1921

Rev H Elliott, Presbyterian

No	682
Date of Notice	22 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Brown	Nellie Dinday
BDM Match (83%)	William Edward Brown	Nellie Sinclair
	💍 1921/315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Sydney	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas Anglican Church
Folio	3270
Consent	Residence of Rev Kennedy Elliott 3 Kent Terrace Wellington
Date of Certificate	22 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev H Elliott, Presbyterian

683

22 June 1921

Harry Brown
Katherine Dunn

Harry Brown
Catherine Dunn
💍 1921/317

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

27
27

Wellington
Wellington South

5 years

[illegible]

3272

22 June 1921

Rev W Jancour, Anglican

No	683
Date of Notice	22 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Brown	Katherine Dunn
BDM Match (96%)	Harry Brown	Catherine Dunn
	💍 1921/317
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence		5 years
Marriage Place	[illegible]
Folio	3272
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev W Jancour, 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).