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 2000

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar A. E. Gray

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

694

27 June 1921

John Frederick William Doman
Hilda Miriam Dorothy Forsyth

John Frederick William Somers
Hilda Miriam Forsythe
💍 1921/1320

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
6 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

3279

27 June 1921

Registrar

No	694
Date of Notice	27 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Frederick William Doman	Hilda Miriam Dorothy Forsyth
BDM Match (77%)	John Frederick William Somers	Hilda Miriam Forsythe
	💍 1921/1320
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3279
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

695

27 June 1921

Patrick Joseph Scanlon
Mary Keane

Patrick Joseph Scanlon
Mary Keane
💍 1921/7375

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

28
30

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
2 months

St Mary the Angels Church, Boulcott Street Wellington

5684

27 June 1921

Rev. D. Mahony, Roman Catholic

No	695
Date of Notice	27 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Joseph Scanlon	Mary Keane
	💍 1921/7375
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 months
Marriage Place	St Mary the Angels Church, Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	5684
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Mahony, Roman Catholic

696

27 June 1921

William Jean Carroll
Mary Teresa Waterhouse

William Leam Carroll
Mary Teresa Waterhouse
💍 1921/1321

Widower
Widow

Hairdresser and Tobacconist

50
43

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 month

St Ann's Church, Newtown Wellington

3280

27 June 1921

Rev. J. McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	696
Date of Notice	27 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Jean Carroll	Mary Teresa Waterhouse
BDM Match (95%)	William Leam Carroll	Mary Teresa Waterhouse
	💍 1921/1321
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Hairdresser and Tobacconist
Age	50	43
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	St Ann's Church, Newtown Wellington
Folio	3280
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McKenna, Roman Catholic

697

28 June 1921

Stanley Alan Dyne
Doris Victoria Westropp

Stanley Alan Syme
Doris Victoria Westropp
💍 1921/1322

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

24
21

Wellington
Kilbirnie

3 years
6 months

All Saints' Anglican Church

3281

28 June 1921

Rev. H. Dykes, Anglican

No	697
Date of Notice	28 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Alan Dyne	Doris Victoria Westropp
BDM Match (94%)	Stanley Alan Syme	Doris Victoria Westropp
	💍 1921/1322
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	3 years	6 months
Marriage Place	All Saints' Anglican Church
Folio	3281
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Dykes, Anglican

698

28 June 1921

Edward John Williamson
Alice Emma Hearman Derby

Edward John Williamson
Alice Emma Spearman Beeby
💍 1921/1323

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

19
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 years

St Thomas' Anglican Church Wellington

3282

12 July 1921

Rev. W. J. Harcourt, Anglican

No	698
Date of Notice	28 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward John Williamson	Alice Emma Hearman Derby
BDM Match (92%)	Edward John Williamson	Alice Emma Spearman Beeby
	💍 1921/1323
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	19	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Anglican Church Wellington
Folio	3282
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Harcourt, 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).