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 2055

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar H. L. Kilthorpe

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

711

27 July 1925

Amiel Isaac Keesing
Lily Goldberg

Amiel Isaac Keesing
Lily Goldberg
💍 1925/6056

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

21
18

Wellington
Wellington

6 weeks
9 weeks

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5907

Leah Goldberg, Mother of bride

27 July 1925

Registrar

No	711
Date of Notice	27 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Amiel Isaac Keesing	Lily Goldberg
	💍 1925/6056
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	9 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5907
Consent	Leah Goldberg, Mother of bride
Date of Certificate	27 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

712

27 July 1925

Martin Powell Donnelly
Cecelia Thompson

Martin Powell Donnelly
Cecelia Thompson
💍 1925/6057

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

23
25

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
5 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

5908

27 July 1925

H.E.K. Fry, Anglican

No	712
Date of Notice	27 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Powell Donnelly	Cecelia Thompson
	💍 1925/6057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	5908
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1925
Officiating Minister	H.E.K. Fry, Anglican

713

27 July 1925

John Dobbie
Margaret Frances Banks

John Dobbie
Margaret Frances Banks
💍 1925/6058

Widower
Widow

Retired Teacher

60
46

Wellington
Wellington

7 weeks
7 weeks

St. Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington

5909

27 July 1925

A.M. Johnson, Anglican

No	713
Date of Notice	27 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dobbie	Margaret Frances Banks
	💍 1925/6058
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Retired Teacher
Age	60	46
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 weeks	7 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington
Folio	5909
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1925
Officiating Minister	A.M. Johnson, Anglican

714

28 July 1925

Cyril John Hawke
Margaret Eileen Martin

Cyril John Hawke
Margaret Eileen Martin
💍 1925/6035

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

The Basilica Hill Street, Wellington

5910

28 July 1925

P.J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	714
Date of Notice	28 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril John Hawke	Margaret Eileen Martin
	💍 1925/6035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	5910
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1925
Officiating Minister	P.J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

715

28 July 1925

Albert Francis Kennedy
Jemima Henderson Douglas

Albert Francis Kennedy
Jemima Henderson Douglas
💍 1925/6036

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
18 months

Residence of bridegroom's parents, Campbell Street, Karori

5911

28 July 1925

F.B. Lawrence, Methodist

No	715
Date of Notice	28 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Francis Kennedy	Jemima Henderson Douglas
	💍 1925/6036
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Residence of bridegroom's parents, Campbell Street, Karori
Folio	5911
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1925
Officiating Minister	F.B. Lawrence, Methodist

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).