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 1986

District of 30 June 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

624

8 June 1921

Ernest Bushworth
Melvena Withies

Ernest Rushworth
Melvena Wilkes
💍 1921/10345

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute

Farmer

40
49

Khandallah

6 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

3216

8 June 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	624
Date of Notice	8 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Bushworth	Melvena Withies
BDM Match (87%)	Ernest Rushworth	Melvena Wilkes
	💍 1921/10345
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute
Profession	Farmer
Age	40	49
Dwelling Place	Khandallah
Length of Residence	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3216
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

625

9 June 1921

Thomas Hodgson Redwood
Inez Olver

Thomas Hodgson Gresley Greenwood
Inez Oliver
💍 1921/10346

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
21

Taita
Wellington

9 months
1 year

Registrar's Office Wellington

3217

9 June 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	625
Date of Notice	9 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hodgson Redwood	Inez Olver
BDM Match (77%)	Thomas Hodgson Gresley Greenwood	Inez Oliver
	💍 1921/10346
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Taita	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3217
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

626

9 June 1921

Robert Maelion Sutherland
Clara Isabelle Masters

Robert Mollison Sutherland
Clara Isabell Masters
💍 1921/10347

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
5 years

St Peters Church Wellington

3218

9 June 1921

Rev. W. B. Taylor Anglican

No	626
Date of Notice	9 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Maelion Sutherland	Clara Isabelle Masters
BDM Match (92%)	Robert Mollison Sutherland	Clara Isabell Masters
	💍 1921/10347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Wellington
Folio	3218
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. B. Taylor Anglican

627

9 June 1921

Phillip Richard Darro
Ailie Genevieve Ballantine

Phillip Richard Davis
Ailie Genevieve Ballantine
💍 1921/10348

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

21
25

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
3 years

St Josephs Church Buckle Street

3219

9 June 1921

Rev. P. J. Cullen Roman Catholic

No	627
Date of Notice	9 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Phillip Richard Darro	Ailie Genevieve Ballantine
BDM Match (93%)	Phillip Richard Davis	Ailie Genevieve Ballantine
	💍 1921/10348
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	21	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Josephs Church Buckle Street
Folio	3219
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Cullen Roman Catholic

628

9 June 1921

Robert Edgar Wimpree Dunsday
Winifred Dunsday

Robert Edgar Carr
Winifred Townsley
💍 1921/10350

Bachelor
Spinster

Linesman

40
28

Wellington

1 year
5 years

Residence of Rev H Elliott 37 Kent Terrace

3220

9 June 1921

Rev H Elliott Presbyterian

No	628
Date of Notice	9 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Edgar Wimpree Dunsday	Winifred Dunsday
BDM Match (60%)	Robert Edgar Carr	Winifred Townsley
	💍 1921/10350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linesman
Age	40	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev H Elliott 37 Kent Terrace
Folio	3220
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev H Elliott 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).