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 2022

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

801

25 July 1921

Raymond Arthur Blackbee
Doris Helen Crook

Raymond Arthur Blackbee
Doris Helen Monk
💍 1921/7797

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
2 months

Registrar's Office

6112

25 July 1921

Registrar

No	801
Date of Notice	25 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Arthur Blackbee	Doris Helen Crook
BDM Match (91%)	Raymond Arthur Blackbee	Doris Helen Monk
	💍 1921/7797
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	6112
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

802

25 July 1921

John Blayden
Ethel Elizabeth Leves

John Clayden
Ethel Elizabeth Lever
💍 1921/7798

Widower
Divorced

Carpenter and Joiner

50
33

Wellington
Wellington

16 years
4 years

Baptist Church, Badenpore

6113

Divorce Decree Absolute 5/11/1919

25 July 1921

T. K. Ewen, Baptist

No	802
Date of Notice	25 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Blayden	Ethel Elizabeth Leves
BDM Match (93%)	John Clayden	Ethel Elizabeth Lever
	💍 1921/7798
Condition	Widower	Divorced
Profession	Carpenter and Joiner
Age	50	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Badenpore
Folio	6113
Consent	Divorce Decree Absolute 5/11/1919
Date of Certificate	25 July 1921
Officiating Minister	T. K. Ewen, Baptist

803

25 July 1921

Spencer George Halse
Gladys Alice Crowe

Spencer George Halse
Gladys Alice Crowe
💍 1921/7799

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter

27
29

Petone
Lower Hutt

20 years
10 years

Registrar's Office

6114

25 July 1921

Registrar

No	803
Date of Notice	25 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Spencer George Halse	Gladys Alice Crowe
	💍 1921/7799
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Petone	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	20 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	6114
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

804

25 July 1921

James Fleming Cumming
Lena Violet Graham

James Flemming Cumming
Lena Violet Graham
💍 1921/7800

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

46
39

Wellington
Wellington South

2 years
14 years

Presbyterian Church, Wellington South

6115

Date of previous marriage dissolution: 3/5/1919

25 July 1921

W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	804
Date of Notice	25 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Fleming Cumming	Lena Violet Graham
BDM Match (98%)	James Flemming Cumming	Lena Violet Graham
	💍 1921/7800
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	46	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	2 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Wellington South
Folio	6115
Consent	Date of previous marriage dissolution: 3/5/1919
Date of Certificate	25 July 1921
Officiating Minister	W. Shirer, Presbyterian

805

25 July 1921

Thomas Arthur White
Catherine Hannigan

Thomas Arthur White
Catherine Hannigan
💍 1921/7801

Bachelor
Spinster

Brickmaker

30
24

Wellington
Wellington South

9 months
5 years

St Anne's Roman Catholic Church, Wellington South

6116

25 July 1921

T. McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	805
Date of Notice	25 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Arthur White	Catherine Hannigan
	💍 1921/7801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Brickmaker
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	9 months	5 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Roman Catholic Church, Wellington South
Folio	6116
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1921
Officiating Minister	T. McKenna, Roman Catholic

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).