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 2003

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

709

29 June 1921

Alfred Oliver Ronalds
Margaret Findlay Buchnell

Alfred Oliver Ronalds
Margaret Findlay Bucknell
💍 1921/1308

Bachelor
Divorced

Carrier

37
30

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
6 months

Residence of Mr Leonard, 211 Vivian Street, Wellington

3291

29 June 1921

Rev. S. D. Orr, Presbyterian

No	709
Date of Notice	29 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Oliver Ronalds	Margaret Findlay Buchnell
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Oliver Ronalds	Margaret Findlay Bucknell
	💍 1921/1308
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced
Profession	Carrier
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Leonard, 211 Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	3291
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. D. Orr, Presbyterian

710

29 June 1921

Francis George Alexander Johnstone
Kathleen Clifford Collins

Francis George Horace Alexandre
Kathleen Clifford Collins
💍 1921/1309

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
1 day

Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

3292

29 June 1921

Rev. J. D. Hullen, Roman Catholic

No	710
Date of Notice	29 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis George Alexander Johnstone	Kathleen Clifford Collins
BDM Match (78%)	Francis George Horace Alexandre	Kathleen Clifford Collins
	💍 1921/1309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	3292
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. D. Hullen, Roman Catholic

711

29 June 1921

George Jones
Olive Edna Mahelin

George Jones
Olive Edna Wakelin
💍 1921/1310

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

22
18

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

7 years
12 years

Residence of Mrs J. Renshaw, Victoria Street, Upper Hutt

3293

29 June 1921

Rev. J. McBain, Presbyterian

No	711
Date of Notice	29 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Jones	Olive Edna Mahelin
BDM Match (94%)	George Jones	Olive Edna Wakelin
	💍 1921/1310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs J. Renshaw, Victoria Street, Upper Hutt
Folio	3293
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McBain, Presbyterian

712

29 June 1921

Herbert Alfred Bryant
Margery Alice Richardson

Herbert Alfred Seifert
Margery Alison Richardson
💍 1921/1311

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

18 years

Registrar's Office

29 June 1921

Registrar

No	712
Date of Notice	29 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Alfred Bryant	Margery Alice Richardson
BDM Match (80%)	Herbert Alfred Seifert	Margery Alison Richardson
	💍 1921/1311
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

713

30 June 1921

Horace Lambert McGregor
Isobel Margaret Brown

Horace Lambert McGregor
Isabel Margaret Brown
💍 1921/7479

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

28
31

Wellington
Wellington

St Thomas's Anglican Church, Wellington South

5788

30 June 1921

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	713
Date of Notice	30 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Lambert McGregor	Isobel Margaret Brown
BDM Match (98%)	Horace Lambert McGregor	Isabel Margaret Brown
	💍 1921/7479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence
Marriage Place	St Thomas's Anglican Church, Wellington South
Folio	5788
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, 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).