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 1832

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Wanganui Registrar A. H. Blyth

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

149

13 July 1921

Ira Rehu Kura
Ira Pokiha

Hereiha Te Ture
Ira Pokiha
💍 1921/4268

[Missing]
Widow

[Missing]
Home Duties

[Missing]
35

[Missing]
Gonville

[Missing]
1 week

Office

7587

[Missing]

13 July 1921

Registrar ie

No	149
Date of Notice	13 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ira Rehu Kura	Ira Pokiha
BDM Match (67%)	Hereiha Te Ture	Ira Pokiha
	💍 1921/4268
Condition	[Missing]	Widow
Profession	[Missing]	Home Duties
Age	[Missing]	35
Dwelling Place	[Missing]	Gonville
Length of Residence	[Missing]	1 week
Marriage Place	Office
Folio	7587
Consent	[Missing]
Date of Certificate	13 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar ie

150

13 July 1921

Walter Hyzer
Iris Constance Brutchely

Walter Flyger
Iris Constance Crutchley
💍 1921/4269

Bachelor
Spinster

Wood merchant
Home Duties

22
25

Gonville
Gonville

6 years
18 years

Office

7588

[Missing]

13 July 1921

Registrar ie

No	150
Date of Notice	13 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Hyzer	Iris Constance Brutchely
BDM Match (82%)	Walter Flyger	Iris Constance Crutchley
	💍 1921/4269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wood merchant	Home Duties
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Gonville	Gonville
Length of Residence	6 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Office
Folio	7588
Consent	[Missing]
Date of Certificate	13 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar ie

151

16 July 1921

John William Kilian
Eileen Blair Murray

John Williams
Eileen Clare Murray
💍 1921/4270

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman
Clerk

26
24

Wanganui
Wanganui East

2 years
5 years

Rev W Kenny's Residence

7589

[Missing]

16 July 1921

K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

No	151
Date of Notice	16 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Kilian	Eileen Blair Murray
BDM Match (74%)	John Williams	Eileen Clare Murray
	💍 1921/4270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman	Clerk
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui East
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Rev W Kenny's Residence
Folio	7589
Consent	[Missing]
Date of Certificate	16 July 1921
Officiating Minister	K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

152

21 July 1921

Wallace Stanley Hooker
Clara Emmabella Sutton

Wallace Stanley Hooker
Clara Emma Isabella Sutton
💍 1921/4271

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Tailoress

23
23

Auckland
Wanganui

3 days
14 days

Church of Christ

7590

[Missing]

21 July 1921

H. G. Noble, Church of Christ

No	152
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wallace Stanley Hooker	Clara Emmabella Sutton
BDM Match (92%)	Wallace Stanley Hooker	Clara Emma Isabella Sutton
	💍 1921/4271
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Tailoress
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Church of Christ
Folio	7590
Consent	[Missing]
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	H. G. Noble, Church of Christ

153

21 July 1921

Thomas Hector Milling
Alice Mona Christian

Thomas Hector Willing
Alice Mona Christian
💍 1921/4272

Bachelor
Spinster

Welder
Dressmaker

28
24

Wanganui
30 Patrick St Wanganui

8 months
12 years

[Missing]

7591

[Missing]

21 July 1921

J. R. Harries, Presbyterian

No	153
Date of Notice	21 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hector Milling	Alice Mona Christian
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Hector Willing	Alice Mona Christian
	💍 1921/4272
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Welder	Dressmaker
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	30 Patrick St Wanganui
Length of Residence	8 months	12 years
Marriage Place	[Missing]
Folio	7591
Consent	[Missing]
Date of Certificate	21 July 1921
Officiating Minister	J. R. Harries, 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).