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 1877

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. C. O'Connor

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

681

12 August 1919

Harold Percival Stephen Stockbridge
Rita Laur.

Harold Percival Stephen Stockbridge
Rita Laur
💍 1919/5459

Bachelor
Spinster

Manager Clothing Store

27
25

Wellington
Wellington

Life
9 months

Baptist Church Vivian Street Wellington

4767

12 August 1919

Rev S. Beckingham

No	681
Date of Notice	12 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Percival Stephen Stockbridge	Rita Laur.
BDM Match (95%)	Harold Percival Stephen Stockbridge	Rita Laur
	💍 1919/5459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Manager Clothing Store
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	9 months
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Vivian Street Wellington
Folio	4767
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev S. Beckingham

682

12 August 1919

John Stuart O'Neil
Margaret Juanita Harris

John Stuart ONeil
Margaret Juanita Harris
💍 1919/5460

Bachelor
Spinster

Musician

34
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

The Basilica Hill Street Wellington

4768

12 August 1919

Rev. W. Peoples

No	682
Date of Notice	12 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stuart O'Neil	Margaret Juanita Harris
BDM Match (97%)	John Stuart ONeil	Margaret Juanita Harris
	💍 1919/5460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Musician
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	4768
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Peoples

683

12 August 1919

Arthur Harold Parfitt
Daisy Matilda Gwendolyn Wendley

Arthur Harold Parfitt
Daisy Matilda Gwyndolyn Wensley
💍 1919/5462

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
27

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
3 days

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

4769

12 August 1919

Rev. H. Watson

No	683
Date of Notice	12 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Harold Parfitt	Daisy Matilda Gwendolyn Wendley
BDM Match (97%)	Arthur Harold Parfitt	Daisy Matilda Gwyndolyn Wensley
	💍 1919/5462
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	4769
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

684

12 August 1919

William James O'Brien
Beatrice Helena Alexander

William James O'Brien
Beatrice Helena Alexander
💍 1919/5463

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

30
33

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
16 years

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

4770

12 August 1919

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	684
Date of Notice	12 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James O'Brien	Beatrice Helena Alexander
	💍 1919/5463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	30	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	16 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	4770
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

685

12 August 1919

Samuel Edward Cover Gray
Huia Sybil Cox

Samuel Edward Cover Gray
Hunia Sybil Cox
💍 1919/5464

Widower 27/3/1918
Spinster

Soldier

31
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

3 days
6 months

Knox Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt

4771

12 August 1919

Rev. J. McCaw

No	685
Date of Notice	12 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Edward Cover Gray	Huia Sybil Cox
BDM Match (97%)	Samuel Edward Cover Gray	Hunia Sybil Cox
	💍 1919/5464
Condition	Widower 27/3/1918	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt
Folio	4771
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw

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).