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 1950

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. E. 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

206

27 February 1925

James Donald Duff
Ethel May Bedell

James Donald Duff
Ethel May Bedell
💍 1925/9708

Widower
Spinster

Police Constable

29
24

Christchurch
Wellington

3 months
Life

St Mark's Church, Wellington

872

27 February 1925

H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

No	206
Date of Notice	27 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Donald Duff	Ethel May Bedell
	💍 1925/9708
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	Life
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	872
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1925
Officiating Minister	H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

207

27 February 1925

Lindsay Ritchie Gilmore
Linda Anne Post

Lindsay Ritchie Gilmour
Linda Anne Post
💍 1925/9709

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

years
Life

St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington

873

27 February 1925

Am Johnson, Anglican

No	207
Date of Notice	27 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lindsay Ritchie Gilmore	Linda Anne Post
BDM Match (96%)	Lindsay Ritchie Gilmour	Linda Anne Post
	💍 1925/9709
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	years	Life
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	873
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Am Johnson, Anglican

208

27 February 1925

Hugh Pirie Greig
Christina Redford Brand

Hugh Pirie Greig
Christina Redford Brand
💍 1925/9710

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

20
21

Residence of Mrs H. Brown, 42 Drummond Street, Wellington
Wellington

14 months
3 months

Residence of Mrs H. Brown, 42 Drummond Street, Wellington

874

Elizabeth Davidson Greig, mother

27 February 1925

Ensign H. C. Goffin, Salvation Army

No	208
Date of Notice	27 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Pirie Greig	Christina Redford Brand
	💍 1925/9710
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Residence of Mrs H. Brown, 42 Drummond Street, Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs H. Brown, 42 Drummond Street, Wellington
Folio	874
Consent	Elizabeth Davidson Greig, mother
Date of Certificate	27 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Ensign H. C. Goffin, Salvation Army

209

27 February 1925

George Lunn Sherwood
Margaret Elizabeth Debay

George Lunn Sherwood
Margaret Elizabeth Tebay
💍 1925/9711

Bachelor
Divorced (Decree absolute 24/2/1925)

Butcher

31
25

Wellington
Wellington

16 months
3 months

St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington

875

27 February 1925

S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	209
Date of Notice	27 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lunn Sherwood	Margaret Elizabeth Debay
BDM Match (98%)	George Lunn Sherwood	Margaret Elizabeth Tebay
	💍 1925/9711
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (Decree absolute 24/2/1925)
Profession	Butcher
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	875
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1925
Officiating Minister	S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

210

28 February 1925

Albert James Ritchie
Doris Evelyn Kind

Albert James Ritchie
Doris Evelyn Kind
💍 1925/786

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

876

28 February 1925

Registrar

No	210
Date of Notice	28 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert James Ritchie	Doris Evelyn Kind
	💍 1925/786
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	876
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 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).