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 1941

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

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

161

13 February 1925

Arthur Hollins
Margaret Christina Campbell

Arthur Hollins
Margaret Christina Campbell
💍 1925/168

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

35
30

Trentham
Wellington

7 years
3 years

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

829

13 February 1925

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	161
Date of Notice	13 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Hollins	Margaret Christina Campbell
	💍 1925/168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	35	30
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	829
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1925
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

162

14 February 1925

Gordon Vincent Mora
Dorothy Gladys Topping

Gordon Vincent Mora
Dorothy Gladys Topping
💍 1925/1867

Bachelor
Spinster

Electric Linesman

24
23

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

8 months
5 months

Church of St. Paul, Lower Hutt

2567

14 February 1925

L. Daly, Roman Catholic

No	162
Date of Notice	14 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Vincent Mora	Dorothy Gladys Topping
	💍 1925/1867
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electric Linesman
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	8 months	5 months
Marriage Place	Church of St. Paul, Lower Hutt
Folio	2567
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1925
Officiating Minister	L. Daly, Roman Catholic

163

14 February 1925

Rowland Vaughan
Muriel Coffey Payton

Rowland Vaughan
Muriel Coffey Payton
💍 1925/169

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Artist

24
18

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

Residence of Bride's Parents, 19 Belfast Street, Wellington

830

John Powell Payton, father

14 February 1925

J. Baird, Presbyterian

No	163
Date of Notice	14 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rowland Vaughan	Muriel Coffey Payton
	💍 1925/169
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Artist
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Bride's Parents, 19 Belfast Street, Wellington
Folio	830
Consent	John Powell Payton, father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Baird, Presbyterian

164

16 February 1925

Norman Fredrick Henderson
Jane Tait

Norman Frederick Henderson
Jane Tait
💍 1925/170

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

28
26

Wellington
Wellington

Life
12 years

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

831

16 February 1925

J. Baird, Presbyterian

No	164
Date of Notice	16 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Fredrick Henderson	Jane Tait
BDM Match (98%)	Norman Frederick Henderson	Jane Tait
	💍 1925/170
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	12 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	831
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Baird, Presbyterian

165

16 February 1925

Richard Edmund Walsh
Mary Eliza Haynes

Richard Edmund Walsh
Mary Eliza Haynes
💍 1925/171

Widower
Spinster

Storeman

33
27

Wellington
Wellington

13.11.1913
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

832

16 February 1925

Deputy Registrar

No	165
Date of Notice	16 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Edmund Walsh	Mary Eliza Haynes
	💍 1925/171
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13.11.1913	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	832
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).