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 1807

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

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

336

28 April 1919

James Monahan
Mary Maud Josephine Steedman

James Monahan
Mary Maud Josephine Steadman
💍 1919/2494

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

36
34

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

24 years
9 years

St Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street Wellington

1824

28 April 1919

Rev. S. Mahony

No	336
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Monahan	Mary Maud Josephine Steedman
BDM Match (98%)	James Monahan	Mary Maud Josephine Steadman
	💍 1919/2494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	36	34
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	24 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	1824
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony

337

28 April 1919

Charles Seymour Eaton
Agnes Isabella Black

Charles Seymour Eaton
Agnes Isabella Black
💍 1919/2495

Bachelor
Spinster

Timber Worker

44
40

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
6 months

Presbyterian Church Seatoun

1825

28 April 1919

Rev. J. Newlands

No	337
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Seymour Eaton	Agnes Isabella Black
	💍 1919/2495
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Timber Worker
Age	44	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Seatoun
Folio	1825
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Newlands

338

28 April 1919

Frank Edwin Mitchinson
Cochran Isabella Hendry

Frank Edwin Mitchinson
Cochran Isabella Hendry
💍 1919/4806

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
17 years

St. Thomas' Church Wellington South

4038

28 April 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	338
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Edwin Mitchinson	Cochran Isabella Hendry
	💍 1919/4806
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church Wellington South
Folio	4038
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

339

28 April 1919

William Henry Barrett
Florence Amelia Jane Battison Shearer

William Henry Barrett
Florence Amelia Jane Battison Shearer
💍 1919/2028

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

31
36

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 years

St. John's Church Willis Street Wellington

1826

28 April 1919

Rev. J. Gibb

No	339
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Barrett	Florence Amelia Jane Battison Shearer
	💍 1919/2028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	31	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	1826
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

340

29 April 1919

Ernest Francis Kelly
Sarah Annie Pearce

Ernest Francis Kelly
Sarah Annie Pearce
💍 1919/2039

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

36
25

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
5 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

1827

29 April 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	340
Date of Notice	29 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Francis Kelly	Sarah Annie Pearce
	💍 1919/2039
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1827
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1919
Officiating Minister	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).