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 1904

District of 31 March 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

216

28 February 1921

William Clarence McHugh
Gladys Nellie Weller

William Clarence McHugh
Gladys Nellie Weller
💍 1921/1022

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
13 years

Registrar's Office

654

28 February 1921

Dep. Registrar

No	216
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Clarence McHugh	Gladys Nellie Weller
	💍 1921/1022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	654
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Dep. Registrar

217

28 February 1921

Leonard Austin Muir
Jessie Grant

Leonard Goslin Muir
Jessie Grant
💍 1921/1023

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
23 years

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace

655

28 February 1921

Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	217
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Austin Muir	Jessie Grant
BDM Match (92%)	Leonard Goslin Muir	Jessie Grant
	💍 1921/1023
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace
Folio	655
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

218

28 February 1921

Rodger Lionel Martin
Muriel Jessie Bycroft

Rodger Lionel Martin
Muriel Jessie Bycroft
💍 1921/40

Bachelor
Spinster

Shunter N.Z.R.

30
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
2 months

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street

656

28 February 1921

Rev. J. T. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	218
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rodger Lionel Martin	Muriel Jessie Bycroft
	💍 1921/40
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shunter N.Z.R.
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street
Folio	656
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Cullen, Roman Catholic

219

28 February 1921

William Ross Dunnett
Elizabeth Mary Paterson

William Ross Dunnett
Elizabeth Mary Paterson
💍 1921/1025

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

35
34

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

5 months
10 months

Presbyterian Manse

657

28 February 1921

Mr. A. H. Chmiel, Presbyterian

No	219
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ross Dunnett	Elizabeth Mary Paterson
	💍 1921/1025
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	35	34
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	5 months	10 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse
Folio	657
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Mr. A. H. Chmiel, Presbyterian

220

28 February 1921

George Edwin Milford
Doreen May Rice Andrews

George Edwin Frilford
Doreen May Rice Andrews
💍 1921/10136

Bachelor
Spinster

Chauffeur

26
17

Martinborough
Wellington

22 years

Residence of Bridegrooms Parents 2933

Joseph [illegible], father, 112 Freyberg Street Wellington

28 February 1921

Rev. R. H. Catherwood, Presbyterian

No	220
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Edwin Milford	Doreen May Rice Andrews
BDM Match (95%)	George Edwin Frilford	Doreen May Rice Andrews
	💍 1921/10136
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chauffeur
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Martinborough	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bridegrooms Parents 2933
Folio
Consent	Joseph [illegible], father, 112 Freyberg Street Wellington
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. H. Catherwood, 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).