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 1928

District of 31 March 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

336

24 March 1921

Henry James Tattersall
Muriel Emma Child

Henry James Tattersall
Muriel Emma Childs
💍 1921/1033

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Plumber

27
25

Plimmerton
Plimmerton

3 days
6 months

St. Andrew's Church

764

24 March 1921

Rev. W. W. Solomon, Anglican

No	336
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Tattersall	Muriel Emma Child
BDM Match (97%)	Henry James Tattersall	Muriel Emma Childs
	💍 1921/1033
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Plumber
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Plimmerton	Plimmerton
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church
Folio	764
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Solomon, Anglican

337

24 March 1921

Arthur James Osborn
Ada Maggie Galloway

Arthur James Oborn
Ada Maggie Galloway
💍 1921/8859

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
27

Petone
Petone

2 years
Life

St. Augustine's Church, Petone

1512

24 March 1921

Rev. H. A. Walker, Anglican

No	337
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Osborn	Ada Maggie Galloway
BDM Match (97%)	Arthur James Oborn	Ada Maggie Galloway
	💍 1921/8859
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	27
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	1512
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. A. Walker, Anglican

338

24 March 1921

Edward John William Barr
Edna Mounsey

Edward John William Carr
Edna Monkman
💍 1921/1034

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Manager

29
26

New Plymouth
Wellington

17 months
4 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis St., Wellington

765

24 March 1921

Rev. J. H. Taylor, Anglican

No	338
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward John William Barr	Edna Mounsey
BDM Match (77%)	Edward John William Carr	Edna Monkman
	💍 1921/1034
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Manager
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 months	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis St., Wellington
Folio	765
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Taylor, Anglican

339

24 March 1921

Alan Charles Adsett
Mabel Sarah Powell

Alan Charles Adsett
Mabel Sarah Powell
💍 1921/1035

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer's Assistant

28
30

Otaki
Island Bay, Wellington

22 years
1 year

St. Hilda's Church

766

24 March 1921

Rev. G. C. Mathway, Anglican

No	339
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alan Charles Adsett	Mabel Sarah Powell
	💍 1921/1035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer's Assistant
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Otaki	Island Bay, Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Hilda's Church
Folio	766
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. C. Mathway, Anglican

340

24 March 1921

James Dean Brosnan
Helvetia Barbara Dolph

James Deen Brosnan
Helvetia Barbara Dolph
💍 1921/1036

Bachelor
Spinster

Land Purchase Officer

34
32

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
5 years

The Basilica Hill Street, Wellington

767

24 March 1921

Rev. M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	340
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Dean Brosnan	Helvetia Barbara Dolph
BDM Match (97%)	James Deen Brosnan	Helvetia Barbara Dolph
	💍 1921/1036
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Land Purchase Officer
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	767
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

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).