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 1989

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar J. H. Kilmoyle

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

396

14 April 1925

Frederick William Phelps
Ada Cecelia Packwood

Frederick William Phelps
Ada Cecelia Packwood
💍 1925/2003

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

27
22

Petone
Petone

2 days
22 years

Salvation Army Hall, Petone

2679

14 April 1925

D. A. J. Inwood, Salvationist

No	396
Date of Notice	14 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Phelps	Ada Cecelia Packwood
	💍 1925/2003
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	2 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall, Petone
Folio	2679
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1925
Officiating Minister	D. A. J. Inwood, Salvationist

397

14 April 1925

Reginald Edgar Witheridge Chapman
Ruby Lightbourne

Reginald Edgar Witheridge Chapman
Ruby Lightbourne Oliver
💍 1925/2004

Bachelor
Spinster

Sailor Royal Navy

26
27

H.M.S. Dunedin
Lower Hutt

11 years
13 years

St. James Church, Lower Hutt

2680

14 April 1925

A. L. Hansell, Anglican

No	397
Date of Notice	14 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Edgar Witheridge Chapman	Ruby Lightbourne
BDM Match (85%)	Reginald Edgar Witheridge Chapman	Ruby Lightbourne Oliver
	💍 1925/2004
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sailor Royal Navy
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	H.M.S. Dunedin	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	11 years	13 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	2680
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1925
Officiating Minister	A. L. Hansell, Anglican

398

14 April 1925

Sydney Ernest Brown
Madge Helen Riddle

Sydney Ernest Brown
Madge Helen Riddle
💍 1925/2005

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
10 years

All Saints Church, Kilbirnie

2681

14 April 1925

J. H. Sykes, Anglican

No	398
Date of Notice	14 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Ernest Brown	Madge Helen Riddle
	💍 1925/2005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	10 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	2681
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1925
Officiating Minister	J. H. Sykes, Anglican

399

14 April 1925

Fred Steel
Sarah Smith Renfrew Morton

Fred Steel
Sarah Smith Renfrew Morton
💍 1925/2006

Bachelor
Spinster

Porter N.Z.R.

23
28

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
1 1/2 years

St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

2682

14 April 1925

A. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	399
Date of Notice	14 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Steel	Sarah Smith Renfrew Morton
	💍 1925/2006
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Porter N.Z.R.
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	2682
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1925
Officiating Minister	A. M. Johnson, Anglican

400

15 April 1925

Charles Leary
Monaca Alice Metcalfe

Charles Leary
Monaca Alice Metcalfe
💍 1925/2007

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

36
22

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
5 months

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

2683

15 April 1925

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	400
Date of Notice	15 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Leary	Monaca Alice Metcalfe
	💍 1925/2007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	5 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	2683
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1925
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

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).