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 1988

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar [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

634

11 June 1921

Herbert Edward Ward
Jane Beavis

Herbert Edward Hamilton Bird
Jane Beavis
💍 1921/10438

Widower (1/1/1906)
Widow (2/12/1920)

Farmer

47
37

Wellington
Upper Hutt

17 years
3 years

St Hilda's Church, Wellington

3226

11 June 1921

Rev. H. B. Barnett, Anglican

No	634
Date of Notice	11 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Edward Ward	Jane Beavis
BDM Match (82%)	Herbert Edward Hamilton Bird	Jane Beavis
	💍 1921/10438
Condition	Widower (1/1/1906)	Widow (2/12/1920)
Profession	Farmer
Age	47	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	17 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Hilda's Church, Wellington
Folio	3226
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Barnett, Anglican

635

11 June 1921

Harry Augustus Drew
Maud Agnes Gummell

Harry Augustus Drew
Maud Agnes Rummel
💍 1921/10449

Bachelor

Mechanic

24
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3227

11 June 1921

Registrar

No	635
Date of Notice	11 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Augustus Drew	Maud Agnes Gummell
BDM Match (94%)	Harry Augustus Drew	Maud Agnes Rummel
	💍 1921/10449
Condition	Bachelor
Profession	Mechanic
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3227
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

636

11 June 1921

John Leslie Jackson
Minnie Barrie St. Clair

John Leslie Jackson
Minnie Carville
💍 1921/10456

Widower (14/12/1919)
Widow (10/3/1910)

Accountant

35
28

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
1 year

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3228

11 June 1921

Registrar

No	636
Date of Notice	11 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Leslie Jackson	Minnie Barrie St. Clair
BDM Match (74%)	John Leslie Jackson	Minnie Carville
	💍 1921/10456
Condition	Widower (14/12/1919)	Widow (10/3/1910)
Profession	Accountant
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3228
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

637

11 June 1921

Thomas Boyd St. Clair
Ethel Louie Webster

Thomas Boyd
Ethel Louie Webster
💍 1921/10457

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
12 years

St Thomas's Church, Wellington South

3229

11 June 1921

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	637
Date of Notice	11 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Boyd St. Clair	Ethel Louie Webster
BDM Match (76%)	Thomas Boyd	Ethel Louie Webster
	💍 1921/10457
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas's Church, Wellington South
Folio	3229
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

638

11 June 1921

Thomas Graham Cook
Winifred Cora Ruby Miller

Thomas Graham Cook
Winifred Coraline Ruby Miller
💍 1921/10458

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

23
21

Wellington
Petone

1 year

St David's Church, Petone

3230

11 June 1921

Rev. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	638
Date of Notice	11 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Graham Cook	Winifred Cora Ruby Miller
BDM Match (93%)	Thomas Graham Cook	Winifred Coraline Ruby Miller
	💍 1921/10458
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	1 year
Marriage Place	St David's Church, Petone
Folio	3230
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

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).