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 1922

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar H. R. 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

23 January 1925

Alexander Reid
Ella Monica Levy

Alexander Reid
Ella Monica Levy
💍 1925/77

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

30
33

Wellington
Wellington

16 years
12 years

Residence of Mrs. C. Levy, 46 Sussex Street, Wellington

735

23 January 1925

P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	66
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Reid	Ella Monica Levy
	💍 1925/77
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	30	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. C. Levy, 46 Sussex Street, Wellington
Folio	735
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	P. F. Cullen, Roman Catholic

23 January 1925

William Morgan Hall
Emma Linda Kelly

William Morgan Hall
Emma Linda Kelly
💍 1925/78

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
6 years

St. James' Church, Lower Hutt

736

23 January 1925

A. H. Hansell, Anglican

No	67
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Morgan Hall	Emma Linda Kelly
	💍 1925/78
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	736
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	A. H. Hansell, Anglican

23 January 1925

Charles James Dorrian
Ada Pretoria Wilson

Charles James Dorrian
Ada Pretoria Wilson
💍 1925/79

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
2 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

737

23 January 1925

T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	68
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles James Dorrian	Ada Pretoria Wilson
	💍 1925/79
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	737
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	T. F. Taylor, Anglican

23 January 1925

Herbert Hunter Barrett
Amy Zelda Williams

Herbert Hunter Barrett
Amy Zelda Williams
💍 1925/80

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

23
19

Wellington
Wellington South

2 years
life

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South

738

William Williams, father

23 January 1925

C. V. Rooke, Anglican

No	69
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Hunter Barrett	Amy Zelda Williams
	💍 1925/80
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	2 years	life
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South
Folio	738
Consent	William Williams, father
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	C. V. Rooke, Anglican

23 January 1925

John Inline Roy Mowat
Agnes Walker Williamson

John Tinline Roy Mowat
Agnes Walker Williamson
💍 1925/81

Bachelor
Spinster

Wool classer

37
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

Happy Valley Station

739

23 January 1925

J. G. Smith, Presbyterian

No	70
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Inline Roy Mowat	Agnes Walker Williamson
BDM Match (95%)	John Tinline Roy Mowat	Agnes Walker Williamson
	💍 1925/81
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wool classer
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Happy Valley Station
Folio	739
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. G. 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).