Intentions to Marry, 1923 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840516, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 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.

1923e contains pages 1745-2124, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 1871

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar J. R. Rorthorpe

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

4 January 1923

Harold Pettman Dalwood
Agnes Kathleen Cecilia Pyman

Harold Pettman Dalwood
Agnes Kathleen Cecilia Pyman
💍 1923/1584

Divorced decree absolute 20-12-1922
Spinster

Commission Agent

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
2 weeks

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

952

4 January 1923

P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	4 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Pettman Dalwood	Agnes Kathleen Cecilia Pyman
	💍 1923/1584
Condition	Divorced decree absolute 20-12-1922	Spinster
Profession	Commission Agent
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	952
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1923
Officiating Minister	P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

5 January 1923

Edwin Ernest Botterill
Stella Gladys Simpson

Edwin Ernest Cotterill
Stella Gladys Simpson
💍 1923/601

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

624

5 January 1923

J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	12
Date of Notice	5 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Ernest Botterill	Stella Gladys Simpson
BDM Match (98%)	Edwin Ernest Cotterill	Stella Gladys Simpson
	💍 1923/601
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	624
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

5 January 1923

Andrew McGill
Ethel May Gibson

Andrew McGill
Ethel May Gibson
💍 1923/602

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

30
30

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
11 years

Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

625

5 January 1923

Wm Holland, Congregational

No	13
Date of Notice	5 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew McGill	Ethel May Gibson
	💍 1923/602
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	625
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Wm Holland, Congregational

5 January 1923

Sidney Septimus Stone
Violet Louisa Southern

Sidney Septimus Stone
Violet Louisa Southern
💍 1923/610

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 year

Methodist Church, Bland Bay, Wellington

626

5 January 1923

J. Chapman, Methodist

No	14
Date of Notice	5 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Septimus Stone	Violet Louisa Southern
	💍 1923/610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Bland Bay, Wellington
Folio	626
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. Chapman, Methodist

5 January 1923

Charles Edward Barrow Webb
Olive Mary Quinlan

Charles Edward Catlow Webb
Olive Mary Quinlan
💍 1923/621

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
27

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
2 weeks

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

627

5 January 1923

A. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	15
Date of Notice	5 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Barrow Webb	Olive Mary Quinlan
BDM Match (94%)	Charles Edward Catlow Webb	Olive Mary Quinlan
	💍 1923/621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	627
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1923
Officiating Minister	A. M. Johnson, Anglican

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).