Intentions to Marry, 1919 Martinborough to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840484, 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.

1919d contains pages 1503-2000, covering districts from Martinborough to Wellington

Page 1601

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar C. E. Shortt

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

149

1 October 1919

William Brockie
Grace Minnie Hassell

William Brockie
Grace Minnie Hassell
💍 1919/9123

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Domestic

31
40

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

10 weeks
30 years

Registrar's Office Palmerston North

8810

1 October 1919

C. E. Shortt, Registrar

No	149
Date of Notice	1 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brockie	Grace Minnie Hassell
	💍 1919/9123
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	31	40
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	10 weeks	30 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Palmerston North
Folio	8810
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 October 1919
Officiating Minister	C. E. Shortt, Registrar

150

2 October 1919

Martinus Emanuel Knudsen
Dagmar Petersen

Martinus Emanuel Knudsen
Dagmar Petersen
💍 1919/9124

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

27
23

Palmerston North
Pokautere

7 years
20 years

Lutheran Church Church Street Palmerston North

8811

2 October 1919

Rev. M. Christensen, Lutheran

No	150
Date of Notice	2 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martinus Emanuel Knudsen	Dagmar Petersen
	💍 1919/9124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Pokautere
Length of Residence	7 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Lutheran Church Church Street Palmerston North
Folio	8811
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Christensen, Lutheran

151

2 October 1919

James Hyland
Lillian Blanche Dickens

James Hyland
Lilian Blanche Wickers
💍 1919/9125

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic

37
32

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 months
3 months

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

8812

2 October 1919

Rev. H. G. Blackburne, Anglican

No	151
Date of Notice	2 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hyland	Lillian Blanche Dickens
BDM Match (94%)	James Hyland	Lilian Blanche Wickers
	💍 1919/9125
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic
Age	37	32
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	8812
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Blackburne, Anglican

152

4 October 1919

Harold Victor Day
Gladys May Turner

Harold Victor Day
Gladys May Turner
💍 1919/9126

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

23
20

Rangitane
Rangitane

9 months
1 year

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

8813

Jane Turner, Mother

4 October 1919

Rev. H. G. Blackburne, Anglican

No	152
Date of Notice	4 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Victor Day	Gladys May Turner
	💍 1919/9126
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Rangitane	Rangitane
Length of Residence	9 months	1 year
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	8813
Consent	Jane Turner, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Blackburne, Anglican

153

4 October 1919

Ernest Frederick Trigg
Ellen Kennedy Hosking

Ernest Frederick Trigg
Ellen Kennedy Hosking
💍 1919/9127

Bachelor
Spinster

Timber Worker
Dressmaker

40
44

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

4 days
11 years

Registrar's Office Palmerston North

8814

4 October 1919

C. E. Shortt, Registrar

No	153
Date of Notice	4 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Frederick Trigg	Ellen Kennedy Hosking
	💍 1919/9127
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Timber Worker	Dressmaker
Age	40	44
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	4 days	11 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Palmerston North
Folio	8814
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1919
Officiating Minister	C. E. Shortt, 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).

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).