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 1925

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar H. R. Telthorpe

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

28 January 1925

Alfred James Stedman
Florence Annie Potter

Alfred James Stedman
Florence Annie Potter
💍 1925/93

Bachelor
Spinster

Market Gardener

37
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

12 years
life

Residence of bride's parents, Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt

750

28 January 1925

W. Rowe, Methodist

No	81
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Stedman	Florence Annie Potter
	💍 1925/93
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Market Gardener
Age	37	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	12 years	life
Marriage Place	Residence of bride's parents, Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt
Folio	750
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Rowe, Methodist

28 January 1925

James Frederick Edney
Lilian Woodward

James Frederick Edney
Lilian Woodward
💍 1925/101

Bachelor
Divorced (decree absolute 16/12/1924)

Baker

43
32

Petone
Petone

4 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

751

28 January 1925

Registrar

No	82
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Frederick Edney	Lilian Woodward
	💍 1925/101
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (decree absolute 16/12/1924)
Profession	Baker
Age	43	32
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	751
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

29 January 1925

William Rouse Kelly
Elise Fara Hood

William Rouse Kelly
Elise Fara Hood
💍 1925/112

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

life
6 years

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

752

29 January 1925

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	83
Date of Notice	29 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Rouse Kelly	Elise Fara Hood
	💍 1925/112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	life	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	752
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1925
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

29 January 1925

Leonard Gilby
Eileen May Pinhey

Leonard Ives
Eileen May Pinhey
💍 1925/117

Bachelor
Spinster

Stipendiary Lay Reader

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 day

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

753

29 January 1925

H. Watson, Anglican

No	84
Date of Notice	29 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Gilby	Eileen May Pinhey
BDM Match (81%)	Leonard Ives	Eileen May Pinhey
	💍 1925/117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stipendiary Lay Reader
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	753
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

29 January 1925

Leslie Noel Biss
Doris Collins Boull

Leslie Noel Biss
Doris Collins Coull
💍 1925/118

Bachelor
Spinster

Company Accountant

25
24

Riccarton, Christchurch
Kelburn, Wellington

18 months
19 years

St. Michael's Church, Kelburn, Wellington

754

29 January 1925

A. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	85
Date of Notice	29 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Noel Biss	Doris Collins Boull
BDM Match (97%)	Leslie Noel Biss	Doris Collins Coull
	💍 1925/118
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Company Accountant
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Riccarton, Christchurch	Kelburn, Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Michael's Church, Kelburn, Wellington
Folio	754
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1925
Officiating Minister	A. M. Johnson, 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).

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).