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 2069

District of 31 December 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar W. B. G. L. Collins

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

1035

4 October 1921

David Henry Cook
Emma Batcheller

David Henry James Cook
Emma Satchell Pelling
💍 1921/5446

Bachelor
Spinster

Dresser

21
22

Upper Hutt

1 day
14 years

St. John's Anglican Church Wellington

8926

4 October 1921

H. S. Barnett, Anglican

No	1035
Date of Notice	4 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Henry Cook	Emma Batcheller
BDM Match (67%)	David Henry James Cook	Emma Satchell Pelling
	💍 1921/5446
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dresser
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	1 day	14 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Anglican Church Wellington
Folio	8926
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1921
Officiating Minister	H. S. Barnett, Anglican

1036

5 October 1921

Arthur George Joseph Everett
Alice Mabel Backhouse

Arthur George Joseph Everitt
Alice Mabel Backhouse
💍 1921/5453

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
22

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

St. Peter's Anglican Church Wellington

8927

5 October 1921

H. Watson, Anglican

No	1036
Date of Notice	5 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Joseph Everett	Alice Mabel Backhouse
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur George Joseph Everitt	Alice Mabel Backhouse
	💍 1921/5453
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church Wellington
Folio	8927
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1921
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

1037

5 October 1921

Barry Augustine Yelverton
Margaret Ethel Green

Barry Augustus Yelverton
Margaret Ethel Green
💍 1921/5454

Bachelor
Divorced (Decree absolute 23 August 1921)

Bank Officer

26
30

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
3 years

Residence of Rev. J. R. Orr, 19 Bolton Street

8928

5 October 1921

J. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	1037
Date of Notice	5 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Barry Augustine Yelverton	Margaret Ethel Green
BDM Match (94%)	Barry Augustus Yelverton	Margaret Ethel Green
	💍 1921/5454
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (Decree absolute 23 August 1921)
Profession	Bank Officer
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. R. Orr, 19 Bolton Street
Folio	8928
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1921
Officiating Minister	J. R. Orr, Presbyterian

1038

5 October 1921

Gin Yee Jack
Tack Lin Chin

Gin Yee Jack
Jack Lin Chin
💍 1921/5455

Gardener

36
19

Wellington
Wellington

Wellington

8929

Mrs Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace (Relation not specified, inferred parent/guardian/relative)

20 October 1921

J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	1038
Date of Notice	5 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gin Yee Jack	Tack Lin Chin
BDM Match (96%)	Gin Yee Jack	Jack Lin Chin
	💍 1921/5455
Condition
Profession	Gardener
Age	36	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence
Marriage Place	Wellington
Folio	8929
Consent	Mrs Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace (Relation not specified, inferred parent/guardian/relative)
Date of Certificate	20 October 1921
Officiating Minister	J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

1039

5 October 1921

Norman Berry Swan Henderson
Margaret Anne Sabina Henderson

Norman Berry
Margaret Anne Sabina Henderson
💍 1921/5456

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Representative

28
20

Wellington
Lower Hutt

20 years
13 years

St. James Anglican Church

8930

Lawrence Henderson, Father

5 October 1921

A. L. Hansell, Anglican

No	1039
Date of Notice	5 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Berry Swan Henderson	Margaret Anne Sabina Henderson
BDM Match (72%)	Norman Berry	Margaret Anne Sabina Henderson
	💍 1921/5456
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Representative
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	20 years	13 years
Marriage Place	St. James Anglican Church
Folio	8930
Consent	Lawrence Henderson, Father
Date of Certificate	5 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A. L. Hansell, 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).