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 1802

District of Rangitikei Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar Louis Diamond

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

16 January 1925

Stuart Allan Cunningham
Freda Fanny Cameron

Stuart Allan Cunningham
Freda Fanny Cameron
💍 1925/1389

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Music teacher

27
24

Fern Flats
Turakina Valley

11 years
24 years

Church of England, Marton

2062

16 January 1925

J. B. Reed, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	16 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stuart Allan Cunningham	Freda Fanny Cameron
	💍 1925/1389
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Music teacher
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Fern Flats	Turakina Valley
Length of Residence	11 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Marton
Folio	2062
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. B. Reed, Church of England

19 January 1925

Alfred Maylin Theed
Eva Bladely Corbett

Alfred Maylin Theed
Eva Chadsley Corbett
💍 1925/1390

Bachelor
Spinster

County Engineer
Nurse

29
31

Marton
Marton

3 days
12 months

Church of England, Marton

2063

19 January 1925

J. B. Reed, Church of England

No	7
Date of Notice	19 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Maylin Theed	Eva Bladely Corbett
BDM Match (90%)	Alfred Maylin Theed	Eva Chadsley Corbett
	💍 1925/1390
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	County Engineer	Nurse
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	3 days	12 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Marton
Folio	2063
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. B. Reed, Church of England

31 January 1925

Charles Albert Major
Evelyn Minna Grant

Charles Albert Major
Evelyn Minna Grant
💍 1925/1391

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

26
25

Turakina
Turakina

10 years
25 years

Presbyterian, Turakina

2064

31 January 1925

Jas Wilson, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Albert Major	Evelyn Minna Grant
	💍 1925/1391
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Turakina	Turakina
Length of Residence	10 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian, Turakina
Folio	2064
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Jas Wilson, Presbyterian

6 February 1925

Alexander Grant McCallum
Margaret Germaine Cox

Alexander Grant McCallum Kirkpatrick Simpson
Margaret Germaine Cox
💍 1925/1392

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

32
30

Hunterville
Crofton

10 months

Church of England, Greatford

2065

6 February 1925

J. B. Reed, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Grant McCallum	Margaret Germaine Cox
BDM Match (77%)	Alexander Grant McCallum Kirkpatrick Simpson	Margaret Germaine Cox
	💍 1925/1392
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Hunterville	Crofton
Length of Residence		10 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Greatford
Folio	2065
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1925
Officiating Minister	J. B. Reed, Church of England

17 February 1925

Heaton Telford Bruce Gordon
Vida Jean Walker

Hector Telford Bruce Gordon
Vida Jean Walker
💍 1925/1393

Bachelor
Widow

Jockey
Domestic

20
21

Marton
Marton

14 years
4 months

Methodist, Marton

2066

John Albert Gordon, father

17 February 1925

H. Daniel, Methodist

No	10
Date of Notice	17 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Heaton Telford Bruce Gordon	Vida Jean Walker
BDM Match (96%)	Hector Telford Bruce Gordon	Vida Jean Walker
	💍 1925/1393
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Jockey	Domestic
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	14 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Methodist, Marton
Folio	2066
Consent	John Albert Gordon, father
Date of Certificate	17 February 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Daniel, Methodist

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).