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 1943

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

171

19 February 1925

William Edward Hooker
Florence Davidson

William Edward Hooker
Florence Davidson
💍 1925/153

Bachelor
Widow

Fitter

31
42

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
18 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

838

19 February 1925

Registrar

No	171
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Hooker	Florence Davidson
	💍 1925/153
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Fitter
Age	31	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	838
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

172

19 February 1925

Victor James Barnes
Mildred Muriel Johanson

Victor James Barnes
Mildred Muriel Johanson
💍 1925/154

Bachelor
Spinster

Chief Steward

23
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
7 years

Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

839

Peter August Johanson, father

19 February 1925

C. Eaton, Methodist

No	172
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor James Barnes	Mildred Muriel Johanson
	💍 1925/154
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chief Steward
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	839
Consent	Peter August Johanson, father
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	C. Eaton, Methodist

173

19 February 1925

Eric Victor Shimmins
Jemima Leah Peterson

Eric Victor Shimmins
Jemima Cecilia Peterson
💍 1925/155

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
Life

St. John's Vestry, Wellington

840

19 February 1925

J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	173
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Victor Shimmins	Jemima Leah Peterson
BDM Match (87%)	Eric Victor Shimmins	Jemima Cecilia Peterson
	💍 1925/155
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. John's Vestry, Wellington
Folio	840
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Gibb, Presbyterian

174

19 February 1925

Geoffrey John King
Martha Carisma Munro

Geoffrey John King
Martha Carisma Munro
💍 1925/156

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
9 years

Residence of Bride's Parents, 32 Pirie Street, Wellington

841

19 February 1925

W. Rowe, Methodist

No	174
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey John King	Martha Carisma Munro
	💍 1925/156
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bride's Parents, 32 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	841
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Rowe, Methodist

175

19 February 1925

Albert Edward Hope
Lillian Slade

Albert Edward Hope
Lillian Slade
💍 1925/157

Bachelor
Divorced (Decree absolute 4/2/1925)

Driver

24
28

Petone
Petone

23 years
15 months

David's Presbyterian Church, Petone

842

19 February 1925

J. C. Loan, Presbyterian

No	175
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Hope	Lillian Slade
	💍 1925/157
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (Decree absolute 4/2/1925)
Profession	Driver
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	23 years	15 months
Marriage Place	David's Presbyterian Church, Petone
Folio	842
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. C. Loan, 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).