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 1815

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

376

12 May 1919

Alfred George Neill
Ivy Stokes

Alfred George Neill
Ivy Stokes
💍 1919/2055

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

23
27

St. Kilda Dunedin
Wellington

7 years
4 days

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

1861

12 May 1919

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	376
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred George Neill	Ivy Stokes
	💍 1919/2055
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	St. Kilda Dunedin	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	1861
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

377

12 May 1919

Andrew Cassie
Theodora Mary Fairfield

Andrew Cassie
Theodora Mary Fairfield
💍 1919/2056

Widower 27/11/1918
Widow 7/12/1918

Theatrical Manager

49
29

Petone
Wellington

30 years
3 days

Catholic Church Petone

1862

12 May 1919

Rev. P. Quealey

No	377
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Cassie	Theodora Mary Fairfield
	💍 1919/2056
Condition	Widower 27/11/1918	Widow 7/12/1918
Profession	Theatrical Manager
Age	49	29
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Catholic Church Petone
Folio	1862
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Quealey

378

12 May 1919

Harry Hadlow Seed
Florence Appleby

Harry Hadlow Seed
Florence Appleby
💍 1919/2057

Bachelor
Spinster

Public Servant

54
32

Wellington
Wellington

50 years
3 years

St. Mark's Church Wellington

1863

12 May 1919

Rev. D. C. Bates

No	378
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Hadlow Seed	Florence Appleby
	💍 1919/2057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Public Servant
Age	54	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	50 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	1863
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. C. Bates

379

12 May 1919

Lawrence Bernard Midgley
Florence May Canute

Lawrence Bernard Midgley
Florence May Canute
💍 1919/5014

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorman

21
21

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

St. Thomas' Church Wellington South

4202

12 May 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	379
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence Bernard Midgley	Florence May Canute
	💍 1919/5014
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorman
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church Wellington South
Folio	4202
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

380

12 May 1919

Matthias Charles Rowe
Alice Julia MacRurdy

Mathias Charles Rowe
Alice Julia MacCurdy
💍 1919/2058

Widower 2/4/1917
Widow 21/1/1898

Retired Civil Servant

66
52

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

40 years
20 years

St. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington

1864

12 May 1919

Rev. J. Mahoney

No	380
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthias Charles Rowe	Alice Julia MacRurdy
BDM Match (95%)	Mathias Charles Rowe	Alice Julia MacCurdy
	💍 1919/2058
Condition	Widower 2/4/1917	Widow 21/1/1898
Profession	Retired Civil Servant
Age	66	52
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	40 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	1864
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Mahoney

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).