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 1679

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar Chas. E. 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

27 January 1919

Ronald McGregor
Jane Winifred Armstrong

Ronald McGregor
Jane Winifred Armstrong
💍 1919/1594

Widower 9-7-01
Spinster

Barman
Tailoress

37
22

Wanganui
Abbott

3 years
22 years

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church Wanganui

1321

27 January 1919

J. D. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	11
Date of Notice	27 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald McGregor	Jane Winifred Armstrong
	💍 1919/1594
Condition	Widower 9-7-01	Spinster
Profession	Barman	Tailoress
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Abbott
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church Wanganui
Folio	1321
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1919
Officiating Minister	J. D. McKenzie, Presbyterian

28 January 1919

Frank Joyce
Annie Maud Mitchell

Frank Joyce
Annie Maud Mitchell
💍 1919/1595

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler
Domestic Duties

42
27

Wanganui
Wanganui

2 weeks
2 years

Registrar's Office Wanganui

1322

28 January 1919

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	12
Date of Notice	28 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Joyce	Annie Maud Mitchell
	💍 1919/1595
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler	Domestic Duties
Age	42	27
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wanganui
Folio	1322
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

28 January 1919

Frank Norman Emmett
Evelyn Myrtle Harper

Frank Norman Emmett
Evelyn Myrtle Harper
💍 1919/1596

Bachelor
Widow 12-10-17

School Teacher
Nurse

29
24

Wanganui
Wanganui

4 months
15 months

St. John's Church of England Wanganui

1323

28 January 1919

H. W. Thomson, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	28 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Norman Emmett	Evelyn Myrtle Harper
	💍 1919/1596
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 12-10-17
Profession	School Teacher	Nurse
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	4 months	15 months
Marriage Place	St. John's Church of England Wanganui
Folio	1323
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1919
Officiating Minister	H. W. Thomson, Church of England

1 February 1919

Patrick Cyril Kaveney
Christina Frances Bonisch

Patrick Cyril Kaveney
Christina Frances Bonisch
💍 1919/1597

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Nurse

25
28

Wanganui
Wanganui

2 months
3 days

Roman Catholic Church Wanganui

1324

1 February 1919

J. A. O'Connell, Roman Catholic

No	14
Date of Notice	1 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Cyril Kaveney	Christina Frances Bonisch
	💍 1919/1597
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Nurse
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	2 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Wanganui
Folio	1324
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1919
Officiating Minister	J. A. O'Connell, Roman Catholic

5 February 1919

Fredrick Alfred Steele
Adelaide Sophia Hohnan

Fredrick Alfred Steele
Adelaide Sophia Holman
💍 1919/1555

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Home Duties

23
19

Wanganui
Wanganui

7 months
18 months

Roman Catholic Church Wanganui

1325

Henry Reddy Hohnan, Father

5 February 1919

J. A. O'Connell, Roman Catholic

No	15
Date of Notice	5 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fredrick Alfred Steele	Adelaide Sophia Hohnan
BDM Match (95%)	Fredrick Alfred Steele	Adelaide Sophia Holman
	💍 1919/1555
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Home Duties
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	7 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Wanganui
Folio	1325
Consent	Henry Reddy Hohnan, Father
Date of Certificate	5 February 1919
Officiating Minister	J. A. O'Connell, Roman Catholic

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).