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 2056

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1923 Registrar H. R. Kehoe

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

911

9 October 1923

Herbert Stanley Gubbins
Elizabeth Martha Morris

Herbert Stanley Gubbins
Elizabeth Martha Morris
💍 1923/6137

Bachelor
Widow

Compositor

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

Life
10 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

8029

9 October 1923

J. J. Taylor, Anglican

No	911
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Stanley Gubbins	Elizabeth Martha Morris
	💍 1923/6137
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Compositor
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	8029
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	J. J. Taylor, Anglican

912

9 October 1923

Richard Pember Balance McMillan
Miriam Cunningham

Richard Pember Balance McMillan
Miriam Cunningham
💍 1923/6138

Bachelor
Spinster

Boilermaker

28
23

Petone
Lower Hutt

23 years
Life

Knox Church, Lower Hutt

8030

9 October 1923

J. McCaw, Presbyterian

No	912
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Pember Balance McMillan	Miriam Cunningham
	💍 1923/6138
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	23 years	Life
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	8030
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	J. McCaw, Presbyterian

913

9 October 1923

Ernest Kai Yen
Lily Chin Ting

Ernest Hai Yen
Lily Chin Ting
💍 1923/10304

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer

31
20

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
15 years

Chinese Mission Church, Frederick Street, Wellington

8031

Chin Ting, father

9 October 1923

C. Y. P. Lee, Anglican

No	913
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Kai Yen	Lily Chin Ting
BDM Match (96%)	Ernest Hai Yen	Lily Chin Ting
	💍 1923/10304
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Chinese Mission Church, Frederick Street, Wellington
Folio	8031
Consent	Chin Ting, father
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	C. Y. P. Lee, Anglican

914

9 October 1923

William Henry Moye
Mabel McDermott

William Henry Moye
Mabel McDermott
💍 1923/6139

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

25
27

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
27 years

St. Marks Church, Wellington

8032

9 October 1923

H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

No	914
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Moye	Mabel McDermott
	💍 1923/6139
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	27 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Wellington
Folio	8032
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

915

9 October 1923

Henry Daysh
Isabella Rose

Henry Daysh
Isabella Rose
💍 1923/5468

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

60
34

Wellington
219 Vivian Street, Wellington

2 days
20 years

Dwelling of Mrs. J. Rose, 219 Vivian Street, Wellington

9962

9 October 1923

R. H. Leatherwood, Methodist Presbyterian

No	915
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Daysh	Isabella Rose
	💍 1923/5468
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	60	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	219 Vivian Street, Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mrs. J. Rose, 219 Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	9962
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	R. H. Leatherwood, Methodist Presbyterian

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).