Intentions to Marry, 1922 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840508, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1922 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.

1922e contains pages 1691-2058, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 2020

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1922 Registrar J. H. Hesthorpe

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

1048

16 November 1922

Robert Mitchell
Mary Margaret Edith Bedford

Robert Mitchell Granville Smith
Mary Margaret Edith Bedford
💍 1922/9051

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

34
30

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
1 month

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7695

16 November 1922

Registrar

No	1048
Date of Notice	16 November 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Mitchell	Mary Margaret Edith Bedford
BDM Match (74%)	Robert Mitchell Granville Smith	Mary Margaret Edith Bedford
	💍 1922/9051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7695
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 November 1922
Officiating Minister	Registrar

1049

16 November 1922

Sidney William Stokes
Ada Louisa Hughes

Sidney William Stokes
Ada Louisa Hughes
💍 1922/9052

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
6 years

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

7696

16 November 1922

Geo. E. Brown, Methodist

No	1049
Date of Notice	16 November 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney William Stokes	Ada Louisa Hughes
	💍 1922/9052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	7696
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 November 1922
Officiating Minister	Geo. E. Brown, Methodist

1050

17 November 1922

Walter Arthur Wood
Minnie Florence Jessett

Walter Arthur Wood
Minnie Florence Jessett
💍 1922/9053

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

26
29

Upper Hutt
Wellington

12 years
18 months

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

7697

17 November 1922

Rev. C. J. Askew, Anglican

No	1050
Date of Notice	17 November 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Arthur Wood	Minnie Florence Jessett
	💍 1922/9053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	18 months
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	7697
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Askew, Anglican

1051

17 November 1922

Thomas George Phillips
Isabel Taylor

Thomas George Phillipps
Isabel Taylor
💍 1922/9054

Bachelor
Spinster

Survey cadet

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
3 years

St. John's Church, Wellington

7698

17 November 1922

Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	1051
Date of Notice	17 November 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Phillips	Isabel Taylor
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas George Phillipps	Isabel Taylor
	💍 1922/9054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Survey cadet
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	7698
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

1052

17 November 1922

Sydney Pere
Johanna Henfred London

Sydney Pere
Johanna Wenfred Condon
💍 1922/9055

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
23

Petone
Wellington

22 years
19 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

7699

17 November 1922

P. J. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	1052
Date of Notice	17 November 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Pere	Johanna Henfred London
BDM Match (95%)	Sydney Pere	Johanna Wenfred Condon
	💍 1922/9055
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	7699
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1922
Officiating Minister	P. J. Cullen, 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).