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 1924

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

27 January 1925

Stuart Lawrence Gardner
Victoria Eleanor Youl

Stuart Lawrence Gardiner
Victoria Eleanor Youl
💍 1925/88

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
9 years

St. Anne's Church, Wellington South

745

27 January 1925

P. B. Fallon, Roman Catholic

No	76
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stuart Lawrence Gardner	Victoria Eleanor Youl
BDM Match (98%)	Stuart Lawrence Gardiner	Victoria Eleanor Youl
	💍 1925/88
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	745
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	P. B. Fallon, Roman Catholic

27 January 1925

Samuel Joseph McBlenaghan
Alice Ellen Woosnam

Samuel Joseph McClenaghan
Alice Ellen Woosnam
💍 1925/89

Bachelor
Divorced decree absolute 3/9/1924

Labourer

45
47

Wellington
Residence of Mrs. Bayley, 18 York Avenue, Khandallah

4 years
4 years

Residence of Mrs. Bayley, 18 York Avenue, Khandallah

746

27 January 1925

D. J. Shaw, Presbyterian

No	77
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Joseph McBlenaghan	Alice Ellen Woosnam
BDM Match (98%)	Samuel Joseph McClenaghan	Alice Ellen Woosnam
	💍 1925/89
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced decree absolute 3/9/1924
Profession	Labourer
Age	45	47
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Residence of Mrs. Bayley, 18 York Avenue, Khandallah
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Bayley, 18 York Avenue, Khandallah
Folio	746
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	D. J. Shaw, Presbyterian

28 January 1925

Albert Jack Brian
Ethel Annie King

Albert Jack Brian
Ethel Annie King
💍 1925/90

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington

747

28 January 1925

W. Shier, Presbyterian

No	78
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Jack Brian	Ethel Annie King
	💍 1925/90
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	747
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Shier, Presbyterian

28 January 1925

Cecil Gordon Davis
Ellen Scott Craig

Cecil Gordon Davis
Ellen Scott Greig
💍 1925/91

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

Life
3 years

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

748

28 January 1925

M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	79
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Gordon Davis	Ellen Scott Craig
BDM Match (94%)	Cecil Gordon Davis	Ellen Scott Greig
	💍 1925/91
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	748
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	M. A. Murphy, Roman Catholic

28 January 1925

Frederick John Thomas
Bessie Cochrane

Frederick John Thomas
Bessie Cochrane
💍 1925/92

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

38
40

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
3 months

St. John's Church, Wellington

749

28 January 1925

J. L. Smith, Presbyterian

No	80
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick John Thomas	Bessie Cochrane
	💍 1925/92
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	38	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	3 months
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	749
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. L. Smith, Presbyterian

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).