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 035

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar S. J. Bruford

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

131

8 February 1919

Wilfrid Brindley Holt
Ruth Kenyon

Wilfrid Binder Holt
Ruth Kenyon
💍 1919/602

Bachelor
Widow (22 March 1917)

Clerk

36
38

Auckland
Auckland

3 years
4 days

St Matthew's Church, Auckland

429

8 February 1919

Rev J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

No	131
Date of Notice	8 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfrid Brindley Holt	Ruth Kenyon
BDM Match (93%)	Wilfrid Binder Holt	Ruth Kenyon
	💍 1919/602
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (22 March 1917)
Profession	Clerk
Age	36	38
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	4 days
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Auckland
Folio	429
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

132

8 February 1919

Samuel Joseph Hawkins
Charlotte Elizabeth Annie Dobias

Samuel Joseph Haskins
Charlotte Elizabeth Annie Dobias
💍 1919/603

Bachelor
Spinster

Boatswain

24
19

Auckland
Auckland

9 days
2 years

St Matthew's Church, Auckland

430

Joseph Dobias, Father

8 February 1919

Rev W. E. Gillam, Anglican

No	132
Date of Notice	8 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Joseph Hawkins	Charlotte Elizabeth Annie Dobias
BDM Match (98%)	Samuel Joseph Haskins	Charlotte Elizabeth Annie Dobias
	💍 1919/603
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boatswain
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	9 days	2 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Auckland
Folio	430
Consent	Joseph Dobias, Father
Date of Certificate	8 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. E. Gillam, Anglican

133

10 February 1919

William Ernest Wood
Christina Reid

William Ernest Wood
Christina Reid
💍 1919/604

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

36
36

Auckland
Auckland

3 years
3 years

Residence of Rev W. E. Williams, 15 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn

431

10 February 1919

Rev W. E. Williams, Unitarian

No	133
Date of Notice	10 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ernest Wood	Christina Reid
	💍 1919/604
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev W. E. Williams, 15 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn
Folio	431
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. E. Williams, Unitarian

134

10 February 1919

James Pitts Harris
Viola Kathleen Smith

James Pitts Harris
Viola Kathleen Smith
💍 1919/605

Bachelor
Widow (7 December 1917)

Farmer

28
33

Auckland
Auckland

5 days
33 years

Residence of John C. M. Smith, Smart St, Onehunga

432

10 February 1919

Rev P. Brown, Presbyterian

No	134
Date of Notice	10 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Pitts Harris	Viola Kathleen Smith
	💍 1919/605
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (7 December 1917)
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	33
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 days	33 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John C. M. Smith, Smart St, Onehunga
Folio	432
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev P. Brown, Presbyterian

135

10 February 1919

Horace Claude Wainwright
Enid Evelyn Drew

Horace Claude Wainwright
Enid Evelyn Drew
💍 1919/606

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

28
20

Auckland
Auckland

8 years
3 years

St Matthew's Church, Auckland

433

Henrietta Mary Drew, Mother

10 February 1919

Rev J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

No	135
Date of Notice	10 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Claude Wainwright	Enid Evelyn Drew
	💍 1919/606
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Auckland
Folio	433
Consent	Henrietta Mary Drew, Mother
Date of Certificate	10 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

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).