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 1929

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar H. L. Lathorpe

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

31 January 1925

Henry Richard Wray
Kathleen Reynolds

Henry Richard Wray
Kathleen Reynolds
💍 1925/9928

Widower
Widow

Boilermaker

50
39

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office

770

31 January 1925

Registrar

No	101
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Richard Wray	Kathleen Reynolds
	💍 1925/9928
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	50	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	770
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

102

31 January 1925

Clifford Charles Bonnett
Joy Eileen Blackett

Clifford Charles Bonnett
Ivy Eileen Blackett
💍 1925/113

Bachelor
Divorced decree absolute 14/9/1923

Farmer

24
37

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
2 weeks

Registrar's Office

771

31 January 1925

Registrar

No	102
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clifford Charles Bonnett	Joy Eileen Blackett
BDM Match (95%)	Clifford Charles Bonnett	Ivy Eileen Blackett
	💍 1925/113
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced decree absolute 14/9/1923
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	771
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

103

3 February 1925

Herbert Miller Reid
Nellie Florence Stanbridge

Herbert Miller Reid
Nellie Florence Stanbridge
💍 1925/9929

Bachelor
Spinster

Boilermaker

26
24

Wellington
Adelaide Road, Wellington

Life
20 years

St James' Church

772

3 February 1925

W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	103
Date of Notice	3 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Miller Reid	Nellie Florence Stanbridge
	💍 1925/9929
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Adelaide Road, Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	20 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church
Folio	772
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Shirer, Presbyterian

104

3 February 1925

Thomas Henderson
Florence Ethel Watson

Thomas Henderson
Florence Ethel Watson
💍 1925/114

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

31
23

Khandallah
Khandallah

10 years
17 years

St Barnabas' Church, Khandallah

773

3 February 1925

R. G. Finch, Anglican

No	104
Date of Notice	3 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henderson	Florence Ethel Watson
	💍 1925/114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Khandallah
Length of Residence	10 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St Barnabas' Church, Khandallah
Folio	773
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1925
Officiating Minister	R. G. Finch, Anglican

105

3 February 1925

William Stanley Fanselow
Eileen Esther Ackland

William Stanley Fanselow
Eileen Esther Ackland
💍 1925/115

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

32
23

Wellington
Roseneath, Wellington

5 years
10 years

Presbyterian Church, Roseneath

774

3 February 1925

J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	105
Date of Notice	3 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stanley Fanselow	Eileen Esther Ackland
	💍 1925/115
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Roseneath, Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Roseneath
Folio	774
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. K. Elliott, 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).