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 1779

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar R. G. Poulton

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

206

24 March 1919

Henry Polglase
Elsie Henrietta Faloon

Henry Polglase
Elsie Henrietta Falloon
💍 1919/531

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

21
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
1 year

St Andrew's Church, Wellington

19/281

24 March 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	206
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Polglase	Elsie Henrietta Faloon
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Polglase	Elsie Henrietta Falloon
	💍 1919/531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, Wellington
Folio	19/281
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

207

24 March 1919

Martin Dunn Were
Margaret Elizabeth Saunders

Martin Dunn Were
Margaret Elizabeth Saunders
💍 1919/532

Bachelor
Spinster

Manager

33
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
13 years

Anglican Church, Roseneath, Wellington

282

24 March 1919

Rev. W. G. Baker

No	207
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Dunn Were	Margaret Elizabeth Saunders
	💍 1919/532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Manager
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	13 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Roseneath, Wellington
Folio	282
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. G. Baker

208

24 March 1919

Otto John Hodgson
Dulce Everline Rogers

Otto John Hodgson
Dulce Eveline Rogers
💍 1919/533

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

23
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
17 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

283

24 March 1919

Rev. A. T. B. Page

No	208
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Otto John Hodgson	Dulce Everline Rogers
BDM Match (98%)	Otto John Hodgson	Dulce Eveline Rogers
	💍 1919/533
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	283
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page

209

24 March 1919

Leopold John Beaumont Free
Marguerite Staveley

Leopold John Beaumont Flree
Marguerite Haveley
💍 1919/534

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

35
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
3 days

St James's Church, Wellington

284

24 March 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	209
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leopold John Beaumont Free	Marguerite Staveley
BDM Match (93%)	Leopold John Beaumont Flree	Marguerite Haveley
	💍 1919/534
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	3 days
Marriage Place	St James's Church, Wellington
Folio	284
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

210

24 March 1919

Charles Edward Leonard McKay
Beatrice Ann Williamson

Charles Edward Leonard McKay
Beatrice Ann Williamson
💍 1919/511

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
Life

Residence of Mrs. T. H. Williamson, 248 Riddiford Street, Wellington

19/285

24 March 1919

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	210
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Leonard McKay	Beatrice Ann Williamson
	💍 1919/511
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. T. H. Williamson, 248 Riddiford Street, Wellington
Folio	19/285
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

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).