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 1787

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar R. G. Donllow

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

236

1 April 1919

Alexander Mack
Ruth Scannell Begley

Alexander Mack
Ruth Scannell Pegley
💍 1919/1999

Widower 14/2/1915
Spinster

Shepherd

50
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 months

St Helier's Church, Island Bay

1730

1 April 1919

Rev. J. G. T. Castle

No	236
Date of Notice	1 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Mack	Ruth Scannell Begley
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Mack	Ruth Scannell Pegley
	💍 1919/1999
Condition	Widower 14/2/1915	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	50	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	St Helier's Church, Island Bay
Folio	1730
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. T. Castle

237

1 April 1919

Robert Gregory Collins
Dorothy Ellen Houlder

Robert Gregory Collins
Dorothy Ellen Houlden
💍 1919/2000

Bachelor
Spinster

Stationer

27
25

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
15 years

Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

1731

1 April 1919

Rev. W. H. Hinton

No	237
Date of Notice	1 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gregory Collins	Dorothy Ellen Houlder
BDM Match (98%)	Robert Gregory Collins	Dorothy Ellen Houlden
	💍 1919/2000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stationer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	1731
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Hinton

238

1 April 1919

Thomas James Colis Belcham
Irene Minola Hulme

Thomas James Colis Belsham
Irene Minola Hulme
💍 1919/2001

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 months

St Peters Church, Wellington

1732

1 April 1919

Rev. T. F. Taylor

No	238
Date of Notice	1 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas James Colis Belcham	Irene Minola Hulme
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas James Colis Belsham	Irene Minola Hulme
	💍 1919/2001
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 months
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	1732
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor

239

1 April 1919

Edward Percy Reade
Elizabeth May Johnstone

Edward Percy Neale
Elizabeth May Johnston
💍 1919/2853

Bachelor
Spinster

Compiler

24
23

Wellington
Dunedin

2 months
8 years

Presbyterian Church, Roslyn, Dunedin

2660

1 April 1919

Rev. W. G. Dixon

No	239
Date of Notice	1 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Percy Reade	Elizabeth May Johnstone
BDM Match (92%)	Edward Percy Neale	Elizabeth May Johnston
	💍 1919/2853
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compiler
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Roslyn, Dunedin
Folio	2660
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. G. Dixon

240

2 April 1919

Alfred Herriman
Rose Amelia Phelps

Alfred Merriman
Rose Amelia Phelps
💍 1919/2002

Bachelor
Widow 18/4/18

Labourer

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
10 years

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

1733

2 April 1919

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	240
Date of Notice	2 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Herriman	Rose Amelia Phelps
BDM Match (97%)	Alfred Merriman	Rose Amelia Phelps
	💍 1919/2002
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 18/4/18
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	10 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	1733
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 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).