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 1854

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar E. H. 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

10 February 1925

Alexander Fruchton Jones
Dorothy May Hainsworth

Alexander Crichtin Jones
Dorothy May Hainsworth
💍 1925/1459

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

26
22

Wanganui
Wanganui

26 years
22 years

W. G. Bassett's Residence, Parsons Street, Wanganui

2100

10 February 1925

E. T. Cox, Methodist

No	26
Date of Notice	10 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Fruchton Jones	Dorothy May Hainsworth
BDM Match (94%)	Alexander Crichtin Jones	Dorothy May Hainsworth
	💍 1925/1459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	26 years	22 years
Marriage Place	W. G. Bassett's Residence, Parsons Street, Wanganui
Folio	2100
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1925
Officiating Minister	E. T. Cox, Methodist

10 February 1925

William Herbert Bryant
Edith Olive Massey

William Herbert Bryant
Edith Olive Massey
💍 1925/1460

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

24
21

Wanganui
Tayforth

1 day
9 years

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui

2101

10 February 1925

J. Paterson, Presbyterian

No	27
Date of Notice	10 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Herbert Bryant	Edith Olive Massey
	💍 1925/1460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Tayforth
Length of Residence	1 day	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui
Folio	2101
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Paterson, Presbyterian

11 February 1925

David Duncan
Janet Keir Donaldson

David Duncan
Janet Keir Donaldson
💍 1925/1471

Bachelor
Spinster

Stoker
Packer

26
25

Wanganui
Wanganui

2 years
2 months

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui

2102

11 February 1925

Hugh Beggs, Presbyterian

No	28
Date of Notice	11 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Duncan	Janet Keir Donaldson
	💍 1925/1471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stoker	Packer
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	2 years	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui
Folio	2102
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Hugh Beggs, Presbyterian

12 February 1925

Sydney Salvin Swan
Noah Ambrosine Gordon

Sydney Salvin Swan
Norah Ambrosine Gordon
💍 1925/1478

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Home duties

36
25

Wanganui
Wanganui

4 years
25 years

Christ Church, Wanganui

2103

12 February 1925

R. C. Meredith, Church of England

No	29
Date of Notice	12 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Salvin Swan	Noah Ambrosine Gordon
BDM Match (98%)	Sydney Salvin Swan	Norah Ambrosine Gordon
	💍 1925/1478
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Home duties
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	4 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Christ Church, Wanganui
Folio	2103
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1925
Officiating Minister	R. C. Meredith, Church of England

13 February 1925

William John Ritson
Imelda Goodall

William John Ritson
Imelda Goodall
💍 1925/1479

Bachelor
Divorced (D/A 23/12/24)

Railway Striker
Saleswoman

33
30

Wanganui
Wanganui

5 years
1 year

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

2104

13 February 1925

E. H. Hylton, Registrar

No	30
Date of Notice	13 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Ritson	Imelda Goodall
	💍 1925/1479
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (D/A 23/12/24)
Profession	Railway Striker	Saleswoman
Age	33	30
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	5 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	2104
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1925
Officiating Minister	E. H. 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).