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 2019

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar [illegible signature]

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

186

20 July 1921

Walter Leonard Clapson
Gertrude Blanche Woody

Walter Leonard Clapson
Gertrude Blanche Moody
💍 1921/7662

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

36
29

Lower Hutt
Wellington

7 years
1 year

Registrar's Office

6097

20 July 1921

Registrar

No	186
Date of Notice	20 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Leonard Clapson	Gertrude Blanche Woody
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Leonard Clapson	Gertrude Blanche Moody
	💍 1921/7662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	36	29
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	6097
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

187

20 July 1921

Gerald Everett
Marcella Adela Barrett

Gerald Everett
Marcella Adelaide Barrett
💍 1921/7663

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Official

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
1 week

All Saints Church, Kilbirnie

6098

Thomas Joseph Barker

20 July 1921

J. H. Sykes, Anglican

No	187
Date of Notice	20 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gerald Everett	Marcella Adela Barrett
BDM Match (94%)	Gerald Everett	Marcella Adelaide Barrett
	💍 1921/7663
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Official
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	6098
Consent	Thomas Joseph Barker
Date of Certificate	20 July 1921
Officiating Minister	J. H. Sykes, Anglican

188

21 July 1921

Henry Angus Karl Rash
Maud Emily Hartley

Henry August Karl Rau
Maud Emily Hartley
💍 1921/7664

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

26
23

Wellington

8 years

Methodist Parsonage, 93 Tinakori Road

6099

21 July 1921

G. B. Harrison, Methodist

No	188
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Angus Karl Rash	Maud Emily Hartley
BDM Match (91%)	Henry August Karl Rau	Maud Emily Hartley
	💍 1921/7664
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 93 Tinakori Road
Folio	6099
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	G. B. Harrison, Methodist

189

21 July 1921

Hubert Roy Patel
Julia Louise Sprague (commonly known as Breads)

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

23
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 years

St. Paul's Cathedral

6100

21 July 1921

A. C. M. Johnson

No	189
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Roy Patel	Julia Louise Sprague (commonly known as Breads)
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Cathedral
Folio	6100
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	A. C. M. Johnson

190

21 July 1921

Percy McBeth Anderson
Eliza Weston

Percy McBeth Anderson
Eliza Weston
💍 1921/7794

Bachelor, Divorced Decree absolute 2-12-1916
Spinster

Civil Servant

32
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace

6101

21 July 1921

J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	190
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy McBeth Anderson	Eliza Weston
	💍 1921/7794
Condition	Bachelor, Divorced Decree absolute 2-12-1916	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence
Marriage Place	2 Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace
Folio	6101
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

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).