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 1938

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Wellington Registrar W. R. Cromby

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

384

5 April 1921

Joseph Noel Thorn
Edith Mildred Zaby

Joseph Noel Thorn
Edith Mildred Galey
💍 1921/10092

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

22
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 days

Trinity Methodist Church

2988

5 April 1921

E. Grant, Methodist

No	384
Date of Notice	5 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Noel Thorn	Edith Mildred Zaby
BDM Match (92%)	Joseph Noel Thorn	Edith Mildred Galey
	💍 1921/10092
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church
Folio	2988
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1921
Officiating Minister	E. Grant, Methodist

385

5 April 1921

Alfred Cecil Willett
Hilda Victoria Elmsberg

Alfred Cecil Kellett
Hilda Victoria Clingberg
💍 1921/10094

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

22
24

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
15 months

H. Pauls Pro-Cathedral

2989

5 April 1921

No	385
Date of Notice	5 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Cecil Willett	Hilda Victoria Elmsberg
BDM Match (87%)	Alfred Cecil Kellett	Hilda Victoria Clingberg
	💍 1921/10094
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	15 months
Marriage Place	H. Pauls Pro-Cathedral
Folio	2989
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1921
Officiating Minister

386

6 April 1921

Horace Stanford Mitchell
Rosina Lydia George

Horace Stanford Mitchell
Rosina Lydia George
💍 1921/10095

Bachelor
Spinster

Hatter

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
22 years

Methodist Church

2990

6 April 1921

S. J. Read, Methodist

No	386
Date of Notice	6 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Stanford Mitchell	Rosina Lydia George
	💍 1921/10095
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hatter
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	22 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church
Folio	2990
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1921
Officiating Minister	S. J. Read, Methodist

387

6 April 1921

Roland Percival Fowle
Madeline Gertrude Tweed

Roland Perceval Towle
Madeline Gertrude Tweed
💍 1921/10096

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

32
29

Auckland
Wellington

20 years

At St. Paul's Cathedral

2991

6 April 1921

Rev. H. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	387
Date of Notice	6 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roland Percival Fowle	Madeline Gertrude Tweed
BDM Match (95%)	Roland Perceval Towle	Madeline Gertrude Tweed
	💍 1921/10096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years
Marriage Place	At St. Paul's Cathedral
Folio	2991
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. M. Johnson, Anglican

388

6 April 1921

Alexander Robert Entrican
Bunea Charlotte Morpeth

Alexander Robert Entrican
Erica Charlton Morpeth
💍 1921/10097

Alexander Robert Entrican
Erica Charlton Morpeth
💍 1921/10108

Previously Married 2/4/1921
Previously Married 2/4/1921

Civil Engineer

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
2 months

Residence of Rev. J. Paterson, 142 Thordon Street, Wellington

2992

6 April 1921

Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian

No	388
Date of Notice	6 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Robert Entrican	Bunea Charlotte Morpeth
BDM Match (85%)	Alexander Robert Entrican	Erica Charlton Morpeth
	💍 1921/10097
BDM Match (85%)	Alexander Robert Entrican	Erica Charlton Morpeth
	💍 1921/10108
Condition	Previously Married 2/4/1921	Previously Married 2/4/1921
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. Paterson, 142 Thordon Street, Wellington
Folio	2992
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson, 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).