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 1889

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar H. P. Horhope

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

101

29 January 1923

Samuel Stanley Howan
Euphemia Harris

Samuel Stanley Howan
Euphemia Harris
💍 1923/637

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
12 years

Baptist Church, Berhampore, Wellington

711

29 January 1923

D. Catchpole, Baptist

No	101
Date of Notice	29 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Stanley Howan	Euphemia Harris
	💍 1923/637
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Berhampore, Wellington
Folio	711
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1923
Officiating Minister	D. Catchpole, Baptist

102

29 January 1923

John James Gilbertson
Jessie Goudie

John James Gilbertson
Jessie Goudie
💍 1923/638

Bachelor
Spinster

Cooper

29
23

Petone
Wellington

18 months
1 month

Methodist Church, Island Bay, Wellington

712

29 January 1923

J. G. Chapman, Methodist

No	102
Date of Notice	29 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John James Gilbertson	Jessie Goudie
	💍 1923/638
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cooper
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Island Bay, Wellington
Folio	712
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. G. Chapman, Methodist

103

29 January 1923

Percival Joseph Thomas
Olivia Rebecca Lawrence

Percival Joseph Thomas
Olivia Rebecca Lawrence
💍 1923/639

Divorced decree absolute 18-12-1922
Spinster

Taxi Proprietor

37
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

Methodist Parsonage, 23 Bidwell Street, Wellington

713

George Gray Lawrence, father

29 January 1923

H. J. Peat, Methodist

No	103
Date of Notice	29 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Joseph Thomas	Olivia Rebecca Lawrence
	💍 1923/639
Condition	Divorced decree absolute 18-12-1922	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Proprietor
Age	37	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 23 Bidwell Street, Wellington
Folio	713
Consent	George Gray Lawrence, father
Date of Certificate	29 January 1923
Officiating Minister	H. J. Peat, Methodist

104

29 January 1923

Daniel Leonard Hartwell
Honora Evans

Daniel Leonard Hartwell
Honora Evans
💍 1923/640

Bachelor
Widow 3-1-1920

Labourer

31
47

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
8 years

St. Anne's Church, Wellington South

714

29 January 1923

M. Cashman, Roman Catholic

No	104
Date of Notice	29 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Leonard Hartwell	Honora Evans
	💍 1923/640
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 3-1-1920
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	47
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	714
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1923
Officiating Minister	M. Cashman, Roman Catholic

105

30 January 1923

Dat Chung Joe
Lucy Young

Dat Chung Joe
Lucy Young
💍 1923/641

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer

23
17

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
1 week

Residence of Mrs Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington

715

Ngan Young, guardian/father

30 January 1923

E. Y. P. Lee, Anglican

No	105
Date of Notice	30 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dat Chung Joe	Lucy Young
	💍 1923/641
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington
Folio	715
Consent	Ngan Young, guardian/father
Date of Certificate	30 January 1923
Officiating Minister	E. Y. P. Lee, Anglican

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).