Intentions to Marry, 1925 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840532, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1925 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.

1925e contains pages 1785-2176, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 1909

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. P. Hope

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

3 January 1925

Frederick William Russell
Catherine Horniman

Frederick William Russell
Catherine Horniman
💍 1925/3793

Bachelor
Widow, 13/9/1923

Machinist

33
42

Wellington
Wellington

Life
6 years

Residence of Mrs Barnaby, 149 The Terrace, Wellington

670

3 January 1925

L. McMaster, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Russell	Catherine Horniman
	💍 1925/3793
Condition	Bachelor	Widow, 13/9/1923
Profession	Machinist
Age	33	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Barnaby, 149 The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	670
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1925
Officiating Minister	L. McMaster, Presbyterian

3 January 1925

James Pollock
Rita Alice Cooper

James Pollock
Rita Alice Cooper
💍 1925/3794

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

20
20

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

671

Eleanor Ethelwyn May Cooper, mother

3 January 1925

Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Pollock	Rita Alice Cooper
	💍 1925/3794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	671
Consent	Eleanor Ethelwyn May Cooper, mother
Date of Certificate	3 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

5 January 1925

Frank Carnell
Eileen Francess Annie Bock

Frank Parnell
Eileen Francess Annie Bock
💍 1925/3795

Bachelor
Divorced, Decree Absolute 26/4/1924

Hardware Merchant

41
32

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
4 weeks

St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington

672

5 January 1925

W. Shiner, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Carnell	Eileen Francess Annie Bock
BDM Match (96%)	Frank Parnell	Eileen Francess Annie Bock
	💍 1925/3795
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced, Decree Absolute 26/4/1924
Profession	Hardware Merchant
Age	41	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	4 weeks
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	672
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Shiner, Presbyterian

5 January 1925

Arthur Joseph Giddens
Mary Annie Quinn

Arthur Joseph Giddens
Mary Anne Quinn
💍 1925/3796

Widower, 15/3/1924
Widow, 27/7/1922

Electrician

41
51

Wellington
Wellington

19 years
28 years

St. Matthew's Church, Brooklyn, Wellington

673

5 January 1925

A. W. Compton, Anglican

No	4
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Joseph Giddens	Mary Annie Quinn
BDM Match (97%)	Arthur Joseph Giddens	Mary Anne Quinn
	💍 1925/3796
Condition	Widower, 15/3/1924	Widow, 27/7/1922
Profession	Electrician
Age	41	51
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	673
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	A. W. Compton, Anglican

5 January 1925

Frederick Ellis Smith
Emily Elizabeth Bowditch

Frederick Ellis Smith
Emily Elizabeth Bowditch
💍 1925/3797

Widower, 20/11/1924
Spinster

Confectioner

39
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
8 months

Church of Christ, Wellington South

674

5 January 1925

H. P. Leng, Church of Christ

No	5
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Ellis Smith	Emily Elizabeth Bowditch
	💍 1925/3797
Condition	Widower, 20/11/1924	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	39	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	8 months
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Wellington South
Folio	674
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	H. P. Leng, 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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).