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 1877

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar H. E. Thorpe

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

11 January 1923

William Baird Hutchison
Olga Fredericka Miller

William Baird Hutchison
Olga Fredericka Miller
💍 1923/1401

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

40
33

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

651

11 January 1923

Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	11 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Baird Hutchison	Olga Fredericka Miller
	💍 1923/1401
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	40	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	651
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Registrar

11 January 1923

Ernest Ormrod
Eileen May Coffin

Ernest Ormrod
Eileen May Coffin
💍 1923/1412

Bachelor
Spinster

Harbour Board Employee

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
9 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

652

Arthur Coffin, Father

11 January 1923

A. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	42
Date of Notice	11 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Ormrod	Eileen May Coffin
	💍 1923/1412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Harbour Board Employee
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	652
Consent	Arthur Coffin, Father
Date of Certificate	11 January 1923
Officiating Minister	A. M. Johnson, Anglican

11 January 1923

Patrick William Twiss
Eileen Nesbit

Patrick William Twiss
Eileen Nesbitt
💍 1923/1419

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

23
29

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
27 years

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

653

11 January 1923

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	43
Date of Notice	11 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick William Twiss	Eileen Nesbit
BDM Match (96%)	Patrick William Twiss	Eileen Nesbitt
	💍 1923/1419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	23	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	27 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	653
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1923
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

11 January 1923

Albert Henry Sievers
Jeannie Hume Best

Albert Henry Sievers
Jeannie Hume Best
💍 1923/1420

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
29

Makara
Ohariu Valley

life
life

Holy Trinity Church, Ohariu Valley

654

11 January 1923

C. H. Isaacson, Anglican

No	44
Date of Notice	11 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Henry Sievers	Jeannie Hume Best
	💍 1923/1420
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Makara	Ohariu Valley
Length of Residence	life	life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Ohariu Valley
Folio	654
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1923
Officiating Minister	C. H. Isaacson, Anglican

11 January 1923

Frederick Johnson
Edith May Lynch

Frederick Johnson
Edith May Lynch
💍 1923/1421

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

20
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. J. W. Johnson, 54 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

655

Thomas William Johnson, Father

11 January 1923

J. J. Marshall, Church of Christ

No	45
Date of Notice	11 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Johnson	Edith May Lynch
	💍 1923/1421
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. W. Johnson, 54 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	655
Consent	Thomas William Johnson, Father
Date of Certificate	11 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. J. Marshall, Church of Christ

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).