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 1850

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar 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

13 January 1925

William Bruce Fordyce
Alice Emmett

William Bruce Fordyce
Alice Emmett
💍 1925/1454

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer (marine)
Home duties

29
28

Wanganui
Wanganui

5 years
5 years

Mr. A. B. Emmett's Residence, 17 Spier Street, Wanganui

2080

13 January 1925

W. E. Lambert, Baptist

No	6
Date of Notice	13 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bruce Fordyce	Alice Emmett
	💍 1925/1454
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer (marine)	Home duties
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Mr. A. B. Emmett's Residence, 17 Spier Street, Wanganui
Folio	2080
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. E. Lambert, Baptist

13 January 1925

Andrew Albert White
Evelyn Thomason

Andrew Albert White
Evelyn Thomason
💍 1925/1455

Widower
Spinster

Carpenter
Housekeeper

43
32

Wanganui
Wanganui

26 years
5 years

Bridegroom's Residence, 73 Glasgow Street, Wanganui

2081

13 January 1925

S. W. Jenkins, Baptist

No	7
Date of Notice	13 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Albert White	Evelyn Thomason
	💍 1925/1455
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Housekeeper
Age	43	32
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	26 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Bridegroom's Residence, 73 Glasgow Street, Wanganui
Folio	2081
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1925
Officiating Minister	S. W. Jenkins, Baptist

19 January 1925

James Good
May Dorothea Charlotte Robinson

James Good
May Dorothea Charlotte Robinson
💍 1925/1456

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Laundry Manageress

45
30

Wanganui
Wanganui

6 years
30 years

Christ Church, Wanganui

2082

19 January 1925

R. C. Meredith, Church of England

No	8
Date of Notice	19 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Good	May Dorothea Charlotte Robinson
	💍 1925/1456
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Laundry Manageress
Age	45	30
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	6 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Christ Church, Wanganui
Folio	2082
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1925
Officiating Minister	R. C. Meredith, Church of England

19 January 1925

Leslie Frank O'Callaghan
Thelma Park Forbes

Leslie Frank O'Callaghan
Thelma Park Forbes
💍 1925/1434

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Music teacher

26
23

Wanganui
Wanganui

23 years
23 years

St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Wanganui

2083

19 January 1925

John Paterson, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	19 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Frank O'Callaghan	Thelma Park Forbes
	💍 1925/1434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Music teacher
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Wanganui
Folio	2083
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1925
Officiating Minister	John Paterson, Presbyterian

24 January 1925

George Allison Storey
Myrtle Ellen Gibbard

George Allison Storey
Myrtle Ellen Gibbard
💍 1925/1435

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Tablet Porter
Home duties

25
27

Wanganui
Wanganui

25 years
20 years

St Oswalds Church of England, Westmere

2084

24 January 1925

W. T. Weller, Church of England

No	10
Date of Notice	24 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Allison Storey	Myrtle Ellen Gibbard
	💍 1925/1435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Tablet Porter	Home duties
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	25 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Oswalds Church of England, Westmere
Folio	2084
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. T. Weller, Church of England

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).