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 1789

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

246

3 April 1919

Christopher Basil Fullerton-Smith
Mary Ward Tate

Christopher Basil Fullertar-Smith
Mary Ward Tate
💍 1919/1984

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 days

Anglican Church Worser Bay Wellington

1739

3 April 1919

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	246
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Basil Fullerton-Smith	Mary Ward Tate
BDM Match (97%)	Christopher Basil Fullertar-Smith	Mary Ward Tate
	💍 1919/1984
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Anglican Church Worser Bay Wellington
Folio	1739
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

247

4 April 1919

Henry George Dolding
Margaret Ann Rigby

Henry George Dolding
Margaret Ann Rigby
💍 1919/1985

Bachelor
Spinster

Stableman

41
44

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
6 years

St Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington

1740

4 April 1919

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	247
Date of Notice	4 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry George Dolding	Margaret Ann Rigby
	💍 1919/1985
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stableman
Age	41	44
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington
Folio	1740
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

248

4 April 1919

Denis Handley
Florence Louisa Peck

Denis Handley
Louisa Florence Peck
💍 1919/1986

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
20

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

18 years
Life

St James Church Lower Hutt

1741

Richard Peck, Father

4 April 1919

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	248
Date of Notice	4 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Handley	Florence Louisa Peck
BDM Match (65%)	Denis Handley	Louisa Florence Peck
	💍 1919/1986
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	18 years	Life
Marriage Place	St James Church Lower Hutt
Folio	1741
Consent	Richard Peck, Father
Date of Certificate	4 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

249

4 April 1919

Charles Hector Ormes
Mary Ann Andersen

Charles Hector Ormes
Mary Ann Andersen
💍 1919/1987

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
4 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

1742

4 April 1919

R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

No	249
Date of Notice	4 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hector Ormes	Mary Ann Andersen
	💍 1919/1987
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1742
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

250

5 April 1919

Fred Govsky (Sometime known as Graham)
Lavinia Eva Esther Bovett

Fred Graham
Lavinia Eva Esther Bovett
💍 1919/1988

Divorced Decree absolute 31.1.1919
Widow 28.9.1916

Master Mariner

36
27

S.S. Monowai
Wellington

3 months
1 year

Registrar's Office Wellington

1743

5 April 1919

R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

No	250
Date of Notice	5 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Govsky (Sometime known as Graham)	Lavinia Eva Esther Bovett
BDM Match (64%)	Fred Graham	Lavinia Eva Esther Bovett
	💍 1919/1988
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 31.1.1919	Widow 28.9.1916
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	36	27
Dwelling Place	S.S. Monowai	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1743
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. G. Poulton, Deputy 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).