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 2001

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar J. R. Kirkhope

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

446

1 May 1925

Cyril Hawthorn Mitchell
Aileen Leonore Smith

Cyril Hawthorn Mitchell
Aileen Lenore Smith
💍 1925/2051

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

33
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
9 months

Residence of Mrs. M. W. Smith, 39 Wellington Road, Kilbirnie

2728

1 May 1925

R. H. Catherwood, Presbyterian

No	446
Date of Notice	1 May 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Hawthorn Mitchell	Aileen Leonore Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Cyril Hawthorn Mitchell	Aileen Lenore Smith
	💍 1925/2051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	33	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. M. W. Smith, 39 Wellington Road, Kilbirnie
Folio	2728
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1925
Officiating Minister	R. H. Catherwood, Presbyterian

447

1 May 1925

Horace Leney
Mary Elizabeth Standen

Horace Leney
Mary Elizabeth Standen
💍 1925/2052

Bachelor
Widow

Butcher

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
10 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

2729

1 May 1925

H. Watson, Anglican

No	447
Date of Notice	1 May 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Leney	Mary Elizabeth Standen
	💍 1925/2052
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Butcher
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	2729
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

448

1 May 1925

Mervyn Lester Holden
Marjorie Lillias O'Shea

Mervyn Lester Holden
Marjorie Lillias O'Shea
💍 1925/2053

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer

25
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
19 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

2730

John O'Shea, Father

1 May 1925

A. M. Johnson, Anglican

No	448
Date of Notice	1 May 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mervyn Lester Holden	Marjorie Lillias O'Shea
	💍 1925/2053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	2730
Consent	John O'Shea, Father
Date of Certificate	1 May 1925
Officiating Minister	A. M. Johnson, Anglican

449

1 May 1925

Lockie Lovell
Barbara Ellen Wingrove

Lockie Lovell
Barbara Ellen Wingrove
💍 1925/2054

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor's Presser

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
6 months

The Residence of Mr. C. A. Lewis, 20 Riddiford Street, Wellington

2731

Elizabeth Wingrove, Mother

1 May 1925

W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	449
Date of Notice	1 May 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lockie Lovell	Barbara Ellen Wingrove
	💍 1925/2054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor's Presser
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	6 months
Marriage Place	The Residence of Mr. C. A. Lewis, 20 Riddiford Street, Wellington
Folio	2731
Consent	Elizabeth Wingrove, Mother
Date of Certificate	1 May 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Shirer, Presbyterian

450

1 May 1925

Walter Charles Redding
Annie Jane Parker

Walter Charles Redding
Annie Jane Farrer
💍 1925/2055

Widower
Spinster

Monotype Operator

48
38

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
9 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

2732

1 May 1925

Registrar

No	450
Date of Notice	1 May 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Charles Redding	Annie Jane Parker
BDM Match (94%)	Walter Charles Redding	Annie Jane Farrer
	💍 1925/2055
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Monotype Operator
Age	48	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	2732
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1925
Officiating Minister	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).