Intentions to Marry, 1919 Albertland to Helensville

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840481, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1919 is bound in seven volumes (a to g) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1919a contains pages 1-500, covering districts from Albertland to Helensville

Page 023

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar L. W. Parsons

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

22 January 1919

George Henry Bennett Morgan
Olive May Holdsworth

George Henry Bennett Morgan
Olive May Holdsworth
💍 1919/4084

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

18
16

Auckland
Auckland

7 years
3 years

House of Mr. P. Daniels, 145 Crummer Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland

371

William Morgan Father, Rachel Ann Belsham formerly Holdsworth mother

22 January 1919

C. W. Burkinshaw, Salvation Army

No	71
Date of Notice	22 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Bennett Morgan	Olive May Holdsworth
	💍 1919/4084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	18	16
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. P. Daniels, 145 Crummer Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland
Folio	371
Consent	William Morgan Father, Rachel Ann Belsham formerly Holdsworth mother
Date of Certificate	22 January 1919
Officiating Minister	C. W. Burkinshaw, Salvation Army

22 January 1919

Hayward Blencowe Matthews
Elsie May Lindsey

Hayward Blencowe Matthews
Elsie May Lindsey
💍 1919/4085

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
27

Auckland
Auckland

4 days
4 days

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

372

22 January 1919

Rev. J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

No	72
Date of Notice	22 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hayward Blencowe Matthews	Elsie May Lindsey
	💍 1919/4085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio	372
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

22 January 1919

William Irwin Thomas
Lorna Edridge Whatford

William Irwin Thomas
Norma Edridge Whatford
💍 1919/4086

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

24
24

Auckland
Auckland

18 years
3 months

Roman Catholic Church, Parnell, Auckland

373

22 January 1919

Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

No	73
Date of Notice	22 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Irwin Thomas	Lorna Edridge Whatford
BDM Match (95%)	William Irwin Thomas	Norma Edridge Whatford
	💍 1919/4086
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	18 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Parnell, Auckland
Folio	373
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

23 January 1919

William Arthur McLachlan
Eileen McGahey

William Arthur McLachlan
Eileen McGahey
💍 1919/4087

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

34
22

Auckland
Auckland

9 months
6 months

Registrar's Office, Auckland

374

23 January 1919

Registrar

No	74
Date of Notice	23 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur McLachlan	Eileen McGahey
	💍 1919/4087
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	9 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	374
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

23 January 1919

Thomas Henry Stringer
Violet Kemp

Thomas Henry Stringer
Violet Kemp
💍 1919/4088

Bachelor
Spinster

Pattern Maker

26
25

Auckland
Auckland

26 years
5 years

Methodist Church, Otahuhu, Auckland

375

23 January 1919

Rev. E. J. Cox, Methodist

No	75
Date of Notice	23 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Stringer	Violet Kemp
	💍 1919/4088
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pattern Maker
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	26 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Otahuhu, Auckland
Folio	375
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. J. Cox, 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).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

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).