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 2147

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1925 Registrar J. H. [illegible]

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

1167

1 December 1925

Ralph Stewart
Rose Marie Kearney

Ralph Stewart
Rose Marie Kearney
💍 1925/8544

Widower 18 February 1924
Spinster

Hotelkeeper

43
28

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
3 days

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

8600

1 December 1925

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	1167
Date of Notice	1 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Stewart	Rose Marie Kearney
	💍 1925/8544
Condition	Widower 18 February 1924	Spinster
Profession	Hotelkeeper
Age	43	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	8600
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 December 1925
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

1168

2 December 1925

Giuseppe Cacace
Concetta Cacace

Giuseppe Cacace
Concetta Cacace
💍 1925/759

Previously married 30 November 1925
Previously married 30 November 1925

Fisherman

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
1 week

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Lower Hutt

10330

2 December 1925

J. J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

No	1168
Date of Notice	2 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Giuseppe Cacace	Concetta Cacace
	💍 1925/759
Condition	Previously married 30 November 1925	Previously married 30 November 1925
Profession	Fisherman
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Lower Hutt
Folio	10330
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1925
Officiating Minister	J. J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

1169

2 December 1925

Henry Gardiner Tasman Jeffery
Winifred Annie Langley Braddock

Henry Gardiner Tasman Jeffery
Winifred Annie Langley Braddock
💍 1925/8552

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

22
24

Auckland
Wellington

1 year
Life

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

8601

2 December 1925

H. Watson, Anglican

No	1169
Date of Notice	2 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gardiner Tasman Jeffery	Winifred Annie Langley Braddock
	💍 1925/8552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	Life
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	8601
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

1170

2 December 1925

Rui Nikora (commonly known as Louis Nicholas)
Maggie Clarke

Louis Nicholas
Maggie Clarke
💍 1925/8563

Widower 12 January 1919
Spinster

Chef

37
29

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
14 months

St. John's Church, Wellington

8602

2 December 1925

J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	1170
Date of Notice	2 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rui Nikora (commonly known as Louis Nicholas)	Maggie Clarke
BDM Match (66%)	Louis Nicholas	Maggie Clarke
	💍 1925/8563
Condition	Widower 12 January 1919	Spinster
Profession	Chef
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	14 months
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	8602
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Gibb, Presbyterian

1171

2 December 1925

Thomas John Biddiss
Sarah Marr Goodfellow

Thomas John Biddiss
Sarah Marr Goodfellow
💍 1925/8570

Widower 21 May 1924
Spinster

Caretaker

51
43

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
13 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

8603

2 December 1925

Registrar

No	1171
Date of Notice	2 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas John Biddiss	Sarah Marr Goodfellow
	💍 1925/8570
Condition	Widower 21 May 1924	Spinster
Profession	Caretaker
Age	51	43
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	8603
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 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).