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 2020

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

791

21 July 1921

Frank Hubert Woodward
Jessie Anne Kenwick Robert

Frank Hubert Woodward
Jessie Anne Fenwick Roberts
💍 1921/7805

Widower
Spinster

Salesman

33
23

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
16 years

Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie

6102

21 July 1921

R. H. Batherwood, Presbyterian

No	791
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Hubert Woodward	Jessie Anne Kenwick Robert
BDM Match (96%)	Frank Hubert Woodward	Jessie Anne Fenwick Roberts
	💍 1921/7805
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	6102
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	R. H. Batherwood, Presbyterian

792

21 July 1921

Charles Francis Sayner
Johanne Regina Sivertsen

Charles Francis Haynes
Johanne Regina Sivertsen
💍 1921/7812

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker

27
33

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
12 years

St John's Church

6103

21 July 1921

D. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	792
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Francis Sayner	Johanne Regina Sivertsen
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Francis Haynes	Johanne Regina Sivertsen
	💍 1921/7812
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker
Age	27	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	12 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church
Folio	6103
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	D. R. Orr, Presbyterian

793

22 July 1921

James Milne
Madeline Blair O'Sullivan

James Milne
Madeline Claire OSullivan
💍 1921/7813

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

27
25

Wellington
Wellington

6 weeks
6 months

The Basilica, Hill Street

6104

22 July 1921

P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	793
Date of Notice	22 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Milne	Madeline Blair O'Sullivan
BDM Match (94%)	James Milne	Madeline Claire OSullivan
	💍 1921/7813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 months
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street
Folio	6104
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1921
Officiating Minister	P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

794

22 July 1921

Thomas Desmond O'Carroll
Elene Macdonald

Thomas Desmond O'Carroll
Elaine Macdonald
💍 1921/7814

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
1 year

6105

22 July 1921

J. St. Moloney, Roman Catholic

No	794
Date of Notice	22 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Desmond O'Carroll	Elene Macdonald
BDM Match (94%)	Thomas Desmond O'Carroll	Elaine Macdonald
	💍 1921/7814
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place
Folio	6105
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1921
Officiating Minister	J. St. Moloney, Roman Catholic

795

22 July 1921

John Henry
Minnie Katherine Wakefield

John Henry
Minnie Katherine Wakefield
💍 1921/7815

Bachelor
Spinster

Greaseman

30
21

Petone
Petone

3 years
17 years

St Augustine's Church

6106

22 July 1921

H. A. Walke, Anglican

No	795
Date of Notice	22 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry	Minnie Katherine Wakefield
	💍 1921/7815
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Greaseman
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church
Folio	6106
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1921
Officiating Minister	H. A. Walke, 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).