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 1968

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. K. Liskope

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

296

25 March 1925

Cecil Graham Longe
Wainoni Rayward

Cecil Graham Tonge
Wainoni Rayward
💍 1925/244

Widower
Spinster

Civil Servant

46
27

Muritai
Muritai

4 months
20 years

St. Alban's Church, Eastbourne

955

25 March 1925

O. M. Stent, Anglican

No	296
Date of Notice	25 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Graham Longe	Wainoni Rayward
BDM Match (97%)	Cecil Graham Tonge	Wainoni Rayward
	💍 1925/244
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	46	27
Dwelling Place	Muritai	Muritai
Length of Residence	4 months	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Alban's Church, Eastbourne
Folio	955
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1925
Officiating Minister	O. M. Stent, Anglican

297

25 March 1925

George Edward Greeks
Phyllis Elizabeth Abbott

George Edward Greeks
Phyllis Elizabeth Abbott
💍 1925/245

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

20
16

Silverstream
Silverstream

1 month
2 weeks

Registrar's office, Wellington

956

Eunice Marie May Wenham, mother; Josiah Abbott, father

25 March 1925

Registrar

No	297
Date of Notice	25 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Edward Greeks	Phyllis Elizabeth Abbott
	💍 1925/245
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	20	16
Dwelling Place	Silverstream	Silverstream
Length of Residence	1 month	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Wellington
Folio	956
Consent	Eunice Marie May Wenham, mother; Josiah Abbott, father
Date of Certificate	25 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

298

25 March 1925

Albert Walter Bix
Isabelle Hardie Dickson

Albert Walter Bix
Isabelle Hardie Dickson
💍 1925/246

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Worker

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

16 months
13 months

Registrar's office, Wellington

957

25 March 1925

Registrar

No	298
Date of Notice	25 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Walter Bix	Isabelle Hardie Dickson
	💍 1925/246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Worker
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 months	13 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Wellington
Folio	957
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

299

26 March 1925

Henry Bruce Hyde
Mary Katherine Kavanagh

Henry Bruce Hyde
Mary Katherine Kavanagh
💍 1925/1883

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Manager

29
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
5 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

2575

26 March 1925

P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	299
Date of Notice	26 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Bruce Hyde	Mary Katherine Kavanagh
	💍 1925/1883
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Manager
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	2575
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1925
Officiating Minister	P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

300

26 March 1925

William Arthur Levorck
Eda Sarah McMinn

William Arthur Purvis Levick
Eda Sarah McMinn
💍 1925/247

Bachelor
Widow

Railway Employee

39
39

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
1 week

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South

958

26 March 1925

C. V. Rookes, Anglican

No	300
Date of Notice	26 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Levorck	Eda Sarah McMinn
BDM Match (84%)	William Arthur Purvis Levick	Eda Sarah McMinn
	💍 1925/247
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	39	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	1 week
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South
Folio	958
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1925
Officiating Minister	C. V. Rookes, 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).