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 2050

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar J. H. 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

686

17 July 1925

Tom Wilson Long
Helen Duthie Gibb

Tom Wison Long
Helen Duthie Gibb
💍 1925/5906

Widower (23/5/1920)
Spinster

Farmer

38
31

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
29 years

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

5881

17 July 1925

J.K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	686
Date of Notice	17 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tom Wilson Long	Helen Duthie Gibb
BDM Match (97%)	Tom Wison Long	Helen Duthie Gibb
	💍 1925/5906
Condition	Widower (23/5/1920)	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	29 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	5881
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1925
Officiating Minister	J.K. Elliott, Presbyterian

687

17 July 1925

Henry Nelson Hanson
Lilian Edith Schuster

Henry Nelson Hanson
Lilian Edith Schuster
💍 1925/5907

Widower (1909)
Spinster

Horse Driver

52
49

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

2 years
20 years

St. James' Church, Lower Hutt

5882

17 July 1925

A.L. Hansell, Anglican

No	687
Date of Notice	17 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Nelson Hanson	Lilian Edith Schuster
	💍 1925/5907
Condition	Widower (1909)	Spinster
Profession	Horse Driver
Age	52	49
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	5882
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1925
Officiating Minister	A.L. Hansell, Anglican

688

18 July 1925

Charles Fisk
Ellen Josephine Crilly

Charles Fisk
Ellen Josephine Crilly
💍 1925/5908

Divorced (Decree Absolute 5/2/1925)
Spinster

Farmer

48
21

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

48 years
1 year

Knox Presbyterian Church, Lower Hutt

5883

18 July 1925

J. McCaw, Presbyterian

No	688
Date of Notice	18 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Fisk	Ellen Josephine Crilly
	💍 1925/5908
Condition	Divorced (Decree Absolute 5/2/1925)	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	48	21
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	48 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	5883
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1925
Officiating Minister	J. McCaw, Presbyterian

689

20 July 1925

Menzies Boe
Mary Collins

Menzies Boe
Mary Collins
💍 1925/5909

Michael Devon
Mary Collins
💍 1925/10153

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
14 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5884

20 July 1925

Registrar

No	689
Date of Notice	20 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Menzies Boe	Mary Collins
	💍 1925/5909
BDM Match (65%)	Michael Devon	Mary Collins
	💍 1925/10153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	14 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5884
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

690

20 July 1925

Frederick Fraser
Kathleen Mary Woods

Frederick Fraser
Kathleen Mary Woods
💍 1925/5887

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
18

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

24 years
5 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

5886

John Woods, Father of bride

20 July 1925

H. Watson, Anglican

No	690
Date of Notice	20 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Fraser	Kathleen Mary Woods
	💍 1925/5887
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	24 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	5886
Consent	John Woods, Father of bride
Date of Certificate	20 July 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Watson, Anglican

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).