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 1946

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

424

15 April 1921

Gabriel John McCarthy
Eva Kathleen O'Keeffe

Gabriel John McCarty
Eva Kathleen Southee
💍 1921/10224

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

33
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
1 year

The Basilica Hill St.

3027

15 April 1921

P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	424
Date of Notice	15 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gabriel John McCarthy	Eva Kathleen O'Keeffe
BDM Match (81%)	Gabriel John McCarty	Eva Kathleen Southee
	💍 1921/10224
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	1 year
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill St.
Folio	3027
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1921
Officiating Minister	P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

425

15 April 1921

William E. D. Arlary
Mabel Wilson McDowell

William McArley
Mabel Wilson McDowell
💍 1921/10231

Widower
Spinster

Secretary

44
29

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 years

Residence of Rev. B. Hutson, 81 Todman Street, Brooklyn

3028

15 April 1921

B. Hutson, Presbyterian

No	425
Date of Notice	15 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William E. D. Arlary	Mabel Wilson McDowell
BDM Match (80%)	William McArley	Mabel Wilson McDowell
	💍 1921/10231
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Secretary
Age	44	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. B. Hutson, 81 Todman Street, Brooklyn
Folio	3028
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Hutson, Presbyterian

426

15 April 1921

William Horace Edward Jensen
Violet May Smith

William Horace Edward Jensen
Violet May Smith
💍 1921/10232

Bachelor
Spinster

Wire Worker

20
18

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
18 years

St. Peter's Mission Hall, Taranaki St.

3029

John Mickle Smith, father

15 April 1921

T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	426
Date of Notice	15 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Horace Edward Jensen	Violet May Smith
	💍 1921/10232
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wire Worker
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Mission Hall, Taranaki St.
Folio	3029
Consent	John Mickle Smith, father
Date of Certificate	15 April 1921
Officiating Minister	T. F. Taylor, Anglican

427

15 April 1921

George Grant Smith
Ethel Margaret Loubére

George Grant Smith
Ethel Margaret Loubere
💍 1921/10233

Bachelor
Spinster

Servant

35
30

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
8 years

Residence of Rev. J. R. Orr, 19 Bolton Street

3030

15 April 1921

J. R. Orr, Wesleyan

No	427
Date of Notice	15 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Grant Smith	Ethel Margaret Loubére
BDM Match (96%)	George Grant Smith	Ethel Margaret Loubere
	💍 1921/10233
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Servant
Age	35	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. R. Orr, 19 Bolton Street
Folio	3030
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1921
Officiating Minister	J. R. Orr, Wesleyan

428

16 April 1921

Joseph Garson Fowle
Inay Kathleen Hoggard

Joseph Garsden Fowler
Ina Kathleen Hoggard
💍 1921/10234

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

22
23

Wellington
Wellington

1 year

St. Mark's Church

3031

16 April 1921

C. F. Askew, Anglican

No	428
Date of Notice	16 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Garson Fowle	Inay Kathleen Hoggard
BDM Match (90%)	Joseph Garsden Fowler	Ina Kathleen Hoggard
	💍 1921/10234
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence		1 year
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church
Folio	3031
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1921
Officiating Minister	C. F. Askew, 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).