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 2006

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar Unclear 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

721

4 July 1921

Harold Earl Ellis
Lydia Dorothy Jones

Harold Earl Ellis
Lydia Dorothy Jones
💍 1921/1937

Bachelor
Widow (5.11.1920)

Cabinetmaker

23
28

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
4 years

Residence of Mr J. E. Jones

6032

4 July 1921

Pastor W. Gillis, Seventh Day Adventists

No	721
Date of Notice	4 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Earl Ellis	Lydia Dorothy Jones
	💍 1921/1937
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (5.11.1920)
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr J. E. Jones
Folio	6032
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Pastor W. Gillis, Seventh Day Adventists

722

4 July 1921

William Staples
Ethel Lardner

William Staples
Ethel Lardner
💍 1921/1938

Divorced (Decree absolute 14.11.1910)
Spinster

Postmaster

45
32

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
5 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

6033

4 July 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	722
Date of Notice	4 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Staples	Ethel Lardner
	💍 1921/1938
Condition	Divorced (Decree absolute 14.11.1910)	Spinster
Profession	Postmaster
Age	45	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	6033
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

723

4 July 1921

Richard Frederick Robinson
Kathleen Mary Stanford

Richard Frederick Robinson
Kathreen Mary Stanford
💍 1921/1939

Bachelor
Widow (9.12.1918)

Clerk

36
24

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
18 months

Presbyterian Manse Khandallah

6034

4 July 1921

Rev. D. A. Shaw, Presbyterian

No	723
Date of Notice	4 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Frederick Robinson	Kathleen Mary Stanford
BDM Match (98%)	Richard Frederick Robinson	Kathreen Mary Stanford
	💍 1921/1939
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (9.12.1918)
Profession	Clerk
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Khandallah
Folio	6034
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. A. Shaw, Presbyterian

724

4 July 1921

Albert Hugh Wells
Ivy Alexandra Bushen

Albert Hugh Wells
Ivy Alexandra Cushen
💍 1921/1916

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Butcher

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 days

St Mary's Anglican Church Karori

6035

4 July 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	724
Date of Notice	4 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Hugh Wells	Ivy Alexandra Bushen
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Hugh Wells	Ivy Alexandra Cushen
	💍 1921/1916
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Butcher
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St Mary's Anglican Church Karori
Folio	6035
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

725

4 July 1921

Leonard Clarence McLellan
Emma Parkinson

Leonard Clarence McClelland
Emma Parkinson
💍 1921/1917

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

6036

4 July 1921

S. Y. Woodward, Anglican

No	725
Date of Notice	4 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Clarence McLellan	Emma Parkinson
BDM Match (94%)	Leonard Clarence McClelland	Emma Parkinson
	💍 1921/1917
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place
Folio	6036
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1921
Officiating Minister	S. Y. Woodward, 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).