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 1875

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar H. B. Burdekin

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

9 January 1923

Charles Naismith
Grace Laura Goodman

Charles Naismith
Grace Laura Goodman
💍 1923/618

Divorced Decree absolute 4-11-1920
Widow 18-11-1918

Engineer

47
37

Petone
Petone

6 months
3 years

Residence of Mr. H. Green, Melling, Lower Hutt

642

9 January 1923

J. McBaw, Presbyterian

No	31
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Naismith	Grace Laura Goodman
	💍 1923/618
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 4-11-1920	Widow 18-11-1918
Profession	Engineer
Age	47	37
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	6 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. Green, Melling, Lower Hutt
Folio	642
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. McBaw, Presbyterian

9 January 1923

Cyril Arthur Spittall
Ideline Gertrude Jones

Cyril Arthur Spittall
Adeline Gertrude Jones
💍 1923/619

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

24
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
20 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

643

9 January 1923

J. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	32
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Arthur Spittall	Ideline Gertrude Jones
BDM Match (98%)	Cyril Arthur Spittall	Adeline Gertrude Jones
	💍 1923/619
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	643
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. F. Taylor, Anglican

9 January 1923

James Stewart
Annie Humphries

James Stewart
Annie Humphries
💍 1923/620

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

38
34

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
2 weeks

Residence of Mr. B. Sutherland, 73 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, Wellington

644

9 January 1923

J. H. Mackenzie, Presbyterian

No	33
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Stewart	Annie Humphries
	💍 1923/620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	38	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. B. Sutherland, 73 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	644
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. H. Mackenzie, Presbyterian

9 January 1923

Denis Thaddeus Moroney
Nora Anne Devlin

Denis Thaddeus Moroney
Nora Anne Devlin
💍 1923/1591

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

31
26

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
26 years

St. Joseph's Church, Wellington

953

9 January 1923

B. J. Ryan, Roman Catholic

No	34
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Thaddeus Moroney	Nora Anne Devlin
	💍 1923/1591
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Wellington
Folio	953
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	B. J. Ryan, Roman Catholic

9 January 1923

Edward Alfred Cross
Margaret Theresa Loftman

Edward Alfred Cross
Margaret Theresa Loftman
💍 1923/622

Bachelor
Spinster

Club Steward

34
28

Petone
Petone

5 days
3 weeks

Sacred Heart Church, Petone

645

9 January 1923

P. Quealy, Roman Catholic

No	35
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Alfred Cross	Margaret Theresa Loftman
	💍 1923/622
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Club Steward
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	5 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Petone
Folio	645
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	P. Quealy, 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).