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 1923

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. H. Ruskhorpe

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

24 January 1925

Alexander Hill
Isabella Aitken Currie

Alexander Hill
Isabella Aitken Currie
💍 1925/82

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
7 days

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

740

24 January 1925

J. Baird, Presbyterian

No	71
Date of Notice	24 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Hill	Isabella Aitken Currie
	💍 1925/82
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	7 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	740
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Baird, Presbyterian

26 January 1925

William John Fraser
Sylvia Grace Isabel Smyth

William John Fraser
Sylvia Grace Isabel Smyth
💍 1925/83

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

37
32

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
Life

Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South

741

26 January 1925

A. N. Scotter, Methodist

No	72
Date of Notice	26 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Fraser	Sylvia Grace Isabel Smyth
	💍 1925/83
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	37	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	Life
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South
Folio	741
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1925
Officiating Minister	A. N. Scotter, Methodist

27 January 1925

Harold Hales Hutchison
Mavis Eileen Shannon

Harrild Hales Hutchison
Mavis Eileen Shannon
💍 1925/84

Bachelor
Widow

Solicitor

30
27

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
3 days

St. Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington

742

27 January 1925

J. McNeill, Presbyterian

No	73
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Hales Hutchison	Mavis Eileen Shannon
BDM Match (96%)	Harrild Hales Hutchison	Mavis Eileen Shannon
	💍 1925/84
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Solicitor
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	742
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. McNeill, Presbyterian

27 January 1925

Henri Lionel Benjamin
Kathleen Margaret Mary Scott-Smith

Henri Lionel Benjamin
Kathleen Margaret Mary Scott-Smith
💍 1925/85

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

40
34

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
6 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

743

27 January 1925

Registrar

No	74
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henri Lionel Benjamin	Kathleen Margaret Mary Scott-Smith
	💍 1925/85
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	40	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	743
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

27 January 1925

Percy Parkinson
Frances Madge Melhuish

Percy Parkinson
Frances Madge Melhuish
💍 1925/86

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

27
24

Petone
Petone

10 years
Life

St. John's Church, Wellington

744

27 January 1925

J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	75
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Parkinson	Frances Madge Melhuish
	💍 1925/86
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	10 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	744
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Gibb, 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).

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).