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 1825

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

426

30 May 1919

Frederick Thomas Leighton
Dorothy Margaret Cheek

Frederick Thomas Leighton
Dorothy Margaret Cheek
💍 1919/3758

Bachelor
Spinster

Analytical Chemist

32
25

Johnsonville
Blenheim

Life
Life

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Blenheim

3702

30 May 1919

Rev. W. O. Robb

No	426
Date of Notice	30 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Thomas Leighton	Dorothy Margaret Cheek
	💍 1919/3758
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Analytical Chemist
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Blenheim
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Blenheim
Folio	3702
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. O. Robb

427

30 May 1919

Burt Godfrey Johnston
Violet May Gough

Burt Godfrey Johnston
Violet May Gough
💍 1919/2102

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

23
20

Petone
Petone

5 months
Life

St. John's Church Willis Street Wellington

1909

Edwin Hugh Gough, Father

30 May 1919

Rev. J. Gibb

No	427
Date of Notice	30 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Burt Godfrey Johnston	Violet May Gough
	💍 1919/2102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	5 months	Life
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	1909
Consent	Edwin Hugh Gough, Father
Date of Certificate	30 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

428

31 May 1919

Douglas Gray George
Pauline Anderson Wilkinson

Douglas Gray George
Pauline Anderson Wilkinson
💍 1919/2832

Bachelor
Spinster

Private Secretary

21
25

Wellington
Auckland

3 weeks
1 year

Baptist Church Upper Queen Street Auckland

2514

31 May 1919

Rev. H. R. Kempton

No	428
Date of Notice	31 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Gray George	Pauline Anderson Wilkinson
	💍 1919/2832
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Private Secretary
Age	21	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 weeks	1 year
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Upper Queen Street Auckland
Folio	2514
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Kempton

429

31 May 1919

Spencer Williams Birkett
Mary Ellen Wotton

Spencer Williams Birkett
Mary Ellen Wotton
💍 1919/2079

Bachelor
Spinster

Combustion Engineer

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

1810

John Henry Wotton, Father

31 May 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	429
Date of Notice	31 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Spencer Williams Birkett	Mary Ellen Wotton
	💍 1919/2079
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Combustion Engineer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1810
Consent	John Henry Wotton, Father
Date of Certificate	31 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

430

31 May 1919

William Alexander McCormick
Mavis Marie Legge

William Alexander McCormick
Mavis Marie Legge
💍 1919/2080

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
4 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

1811

31 May 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	430
Date of Notice	31 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander McCormick	Mavis Marie Legge
	💍 1919/2080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1811
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 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).