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 2085

District of 31 December 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar W. F. Holo[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

1115

27 October 1921

Charles Edward Massey
Winifred Ivy Sapsford

Charles Edward Massey
Winifred Ivy Sapsford
💍 1921/3712

Divorced (Decree absolute 9. 9. 1919)
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
7 years

Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

9004

27 October 1921

A. E. Hunt, Congregational

No	1115
Date of Notice	27 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Massey	Winifred Ivy Sapsford
	💍 1921/3712
Condition	Divorced (Decree absolute 9. 9. 1919)	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	9004
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A. E. Hunt, Congregational

1116

27 October 1921

Patrick Wallace
Nellie Seddon

Patrick Wallace
Nellie Seddon
💍 1921/3713

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
4 years

St. Peter's Anglican Church, Wellington

9005

27 October 1921

T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	1116
Date of Notice	27 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Wallace	Nellie Seddon
	💍 1921/3713
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church, Wellington
Folio	9005
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1921
Officiating Minister	T. F. Taylor, Anglican

1117

27 October 1921

Stanley John Friis
Ida Hannah Shaw

Stanley John Friis
Ida Hannah Shaw
💍 1921/3714

Bachelor
Spinster

City Council Employee

29
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

9006

27 October 1921

B. Hutson, Presbyterian

No	1117
Date of Notice	27 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley John Friis	Ida Hannah Shaw
	💍 1921/3714
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	City Council Employee
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	9006
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Hutson, Presbyterian

1118

28 October 1921

Frederick Norman Sapsford
Helen Grace Tolmie

Frederick Norman Sapsford
Helen Craigie Tolmie
💍 1921/3715

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
4 years

Residence of H. M. Hearn, 195 Clyde Street, Island Bay

9007

28 October 1921

H. P. Leng, Church of Christ

No	1118
Date of Notice	28 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Norman Sapsford	Helen Grace Tolmie
BDM Match (90%)	Frederick Norman Sapsford	Helen Craigie Tolmie
	💍 1921/3715
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of H. M. Hearn, 195 Clyde Street, Island Bay
Folio	9007
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1921
Officiating Minister	H. P. Leng, Church of Christ

1119

28 October 1921

William John Fisher
Ivy Doreen Pope

William Stephen Fisher
Ivy Doreen Pope
💍 1921/3716

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

26
20

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

Life
10 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

9008

28 October 1921

C. H. Isaacson, Anglican

No	1119
Date of Notice	28 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Fisher	Ivy Doreen Pope
BDM Match (89%)	William Stephen Fisher	Ivy Doreen Pope
	💍 1921/3716
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	9008
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1921
Officiating Minister	C. H. Isaacson, 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).