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 1887

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. E. Lynch

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

731

25 August 1919

John Stratford Jaffray
Blanche Rainey

John Stratford Jaffray
Blanche Ramsay
💍 1919/4250

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

35
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
7 years

All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington

4800

25 August 1919

Rev. J. K. Sykes

No	731
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stratford Jaffray	Blanche Rainey
BDM Match (89%)	John Stratford Jaffray	Blanche Ramsay
	💍 1919/4250
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	35	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	7 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington
Folio	4800
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Sykes

732

25 August 1919

William John Lawrence
Doris Maud Whisker

William John Laurence
Doris Maud Whisker
💍 1919/5475

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

26
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

4801

John Henry Fielding Whisker, Father

25 August 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	732
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Lawrence	Doris Maud Whisker
BDM Match (98%)	William John Laurence	Doris Maud Whisker
	💍 1919/5475
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	4801
Consent	John Henry Fielding Whisker, Father
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

733

26 August 1919

Frank Dixon
Florence Roy Clark

Frank Dixon
Florence Roy Clark
💍 1919/4277

Divorced Decree absolute 7. 8. 1919
Divorced Decree absolute 31. 5. 1919

Stockbuyer

49
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

4860

26 August 1919

Registrar

No	733
Date of Notice	26 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Dixon	Florence Roy Clark
	💍 1919/4277
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 7. 8. 1919	Divorced Decree absolute 31. 5. 1919
Profession	Stockbuyer
Age	49	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4860
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

734

26 August 1919

Alfred Granville Shearsby
Moray Ellen Stuart Anderson

Alfred Grenville Shearsly
Morey Ellen Stuart Anderson
💍 1919/5486

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

Presbyterian Manse Pirie Street Wellington

4802

26 August 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	734
Date of Notice	26 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Granville Shearsby	Moray Ellen Stuart Anderson
BDM Match (94%)	Alfred Grenville Shearsly	Morey Ellen Stuart Anderson
	💍 1919/5486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Pirie Street Wellington
Folio	4802
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

735

26 August 1919

Thomas Duncan
Caroline Emily Jones

Thomas Duncan
Caroline Emily Jones
💍 1919/5493

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
9 months

Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington

4803

26 August 1919

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	735
Date of Notice	26 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Duncan	Caroline Emily Jones
	💍 1919/5493
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington
Folio	4803
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

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).