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 1864

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar E. A. Hylton

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

15 April 1925

John Douglas Easton
Florence Isabella Brown

John Douglas Easton
Florence Isabella Brown
💍 1925/4926

Bachelor
Widow

Tailor
Home duties

31
32

Wanganui
Wanganui

3 months
18 months

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4749

15 April 1925

E. A. Hylton, Registrar

No	72
Date of Notice	15 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Douglas Easton	Florence Isabella Brown
	💍 1925/4926
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Tailor	Home duties
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4749
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1925
Officiating Minister	E. A. Hylton, Registrar

17 April 1925

Walter Keith Ross
Mavis Gwendoline Webb

Walter Keith Ross
Mavis Gwendoline Webb
💍 1925/4937

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

29
24

Wanganui
Wanganui

29 years
24 years

St. Laurence's Church of England, Wanganui

4750

17 April 1925

W. T. Weller, Church of England

No	73
Date of Notice	17 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Keith Ross	Mavis Gwendoline Webb
	💍 1925/4937
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	29 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Laurence's Church of England, Wanganui
Folio	4750
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1925
Officiating Minister	W. T. Weller, Church of England

21 April 1925

Samuel McAfee
Margaret Anna O'Donnell

Samuel McAfee
Margaret Ann O'Donnell
💍 1925/4944

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
Home duties

32
32

Wanganui
Wanganui

6 years
7 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

4751

21 April 1925

G. Mahony, Roman Catholic

No	74
Date of Notice	21 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel McAfee	Margaret Anna O'Donnell
BDM Match (98%)	Samuel McAfee	Margaret Ann O'Donnell
	💍 1925/4944
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	Home duties
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	6 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	4751
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1925
Officiating Minister	G. Mahony, Roman Catholic

22 April 1925

William Percy Richard Day
Violet May Ingerton

William Percy Richard Day
Violet May Ingerton
💍 1925/4945

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Typiste

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
20 years

St. Mark's Church of England, Wellington

4752

Sec 27. No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

7 May 1925

H. E. K. Fry, Church of England

No	75
Date of Notice	22 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Percy Richard Day	Violet May Ingerton
	💍 1925/4945
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Typiste
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church of England, Wellington
Folio	4752
Consent	Sec 27. No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	7 May 1925
Officiating Minister	H. E. K. Fry, Church of England

23 April 1925

Herbert Owen Brown
Harriet Rose Squire

Herbert Owen Brown
Harriet Rose Squire
💍 1925/4946

Divorced (Decree Absolute 18/2/25)
Spinster

Engineer
Laundress

40
35

Wanganui
Wanganui

7 years
7 years

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4753

23 April 1925

E. A. Hylton, Registrar

No	76
Date of Notice	23 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Owen Brown	Harriet Rose Squire
	💍 1925/4946
Condition	Divorced (Decree Absolute 18/2/25)	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Laundress
Age	40	35
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	7 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4753
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1925
Officiating Minister	E. A. Hylton, 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).