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 1879

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

691

14 August 1919

Henry Robottom
Florence Ethel Bland

Henry Robottom
Florence Ethel Bland
💍 1919/5511

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

36
27

Wellington
Island Bay

14 years
12 years

Church of England Wadestown Wellington

4776

14 August 1919

Rev. C. E. Jones

No	691
Date of Notice	14 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Robottom	Florence Ethel Bland
	💍 1919/5511
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	36	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Island Bay
Length of Residence	14 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Wadestown Wellington
Folio	4776
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. E. Jones

692

14 August 1919

Richard Leslie Kinsella
Margaret Winifred Freaney

Richard Leslie Kinsella
Margaret Winifred Greaney
💍 1919/7034

Bachelor
Spinster

Farrier

29
35

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
6 years

S. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott St Wellington

6544

14 August 1919

Rev. R. Hoare

No	692
Date of Notice	14 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Leslie Kinsella	Margaret Winifred Freaney
BDM Match (98%)	Richard Leslie Kinsella	Margaret Winifred Greaney
	💍 1919/7034
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farrier
Age	29	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	6 years
Marriage Place	S. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott St Wellington
Folio	6544
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Hoare

693

14 August 1919

George McGeorge Dalling
Hilda Basire

George McGeorge Dalling
Hilda Basire
💍 1919/5518

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

31
21

S. S. Komata
Wellington

2 years
19 years

Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington

4777

14 August 1919

Rev. J. H. Elliott

No	693
Date of Notice	14 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George McGeorge Dalling	Hilda Basire
	💍 1919/5518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	S. S. Komata	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington
Folio	4777
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott

694

15 August 1919

Samuel Shuter
Rachel Winifred Fitch

Samuel Shutler
Rachel Winifred Fitch
💍 1919/5519

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Shunter

39
23

Wellington
Wellington

39 years
34 years

Presbyterian Church Terrace Wellington

4778

15 August 1919

Rev. J. H. Elliott

No	694
Date of Notice	15 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Shuter	Rachel Winifred Fitch
BDM Match (96%)	Samuel Shutler	Rachel Winifred Fitch
	💍 1919/5519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter
Age	39	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	39 years	34 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Terrace Wellington
Folio	4778
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott

695

15 August 1919

Andrew McGill
Margaret Stevenson Smith

Andrew McGill
Margaret Stevenson Smith
💍 1919/5520

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

43
30

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

3 days
12 years

The Basilica Wellington

4779

15 August 1919

Rev. P. J. Smyth

No	695
Date of Notice	15 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew McGill	Margaret Stevenson Smith
	💍 1919/5520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	43	30
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica Wellington
Folio	4779
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth

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).