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 1972

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. H. L. 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

316

28 March 1925

Wilfred George Hoare
Myrtle Irene Bashford Keen

Wilfred George Hoare
Myrtle Irene Bashford Keen
💍 1925/239

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

24 years
3 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South

973

28 March 1925

A. N. Scotter, Methodist

No	316
Date of Notice	28 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred George Hoare	Myrtle Irene Bashford Keen
	💍 1925/239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	24 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South
Folio	973
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1925
Officiating Minister	A. N. Scotter, Methodist

317

28 March 1925

Fraser Libra
Janet McArthur

Fraser Libra Upchurch
Janet McArthur
💍 1925/240

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

22
26

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

974

28 March 1925

Registrar

No	317
Date of Notice	28 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fraser Libra	Janet McArthur
BDM Match (79%)	Fraser Libra Upchurch	Janet McArthur
	💍 1925/240
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	22	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	974
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

318

28 March 1925

Gilbert Gillespie Watson
Millicent Regina Yates

Gilbert Gillespie Watson
Millicent Regina Yates
💍 1925/5467

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter & Decorator

20
18

Wellington
Wellington

15 months
15 months

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

5385

Section 27

11 April 1925

C. Eaton, Methodist

No	318
Date of Notice	28 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Gillespie Watson	Millicent Regina Yates
	💍 1925/5467
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter & Decorator
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	15 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	5385
Consent	Section 27
Date of Certificate	11 April 1925
Officiating Minister	C. Eaton, Methodist

319

30 March 1925

Frederick Horace Exley
Edith Gertrude Daniels

Frederick Horace Exley
Edith Gertrude Daniels
💍 1925/248

Bachelor
Spinster

Travelling Salesman

31
22

Wellington
Wellington

11 days
1 year

Congregational Church, The Terrace, Wellington

975

30 March 1925

E. R. Weeks, Congregational

No	319
Date of Notice	30 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Horace Exley	Edith Gertrude Daniels
	💍 1925/248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Travelling Salesman
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 days	1 year
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	975
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1925
Officiating Minister	E. R. Weeks, Congregational

320

30 March 1925

Kenneth Lamb Morrison
Rita Isabel Cudby

Kenneth Lamb Morrison
Zita Isabel Cudby
💍 1925/259

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

23
21

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

5 days
Life

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

976

30 March 1925

P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	320
Date of Notice	30 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Lamb Morrison	Rita Isabel Cudby
BDM Match (97%)	Kenneth Lamb Morrison	Zita Isabel Cudby
	💍 1925/259
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	5 days	Life
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	976
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1925
Officiating Minister	P. J. Smyth, 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).