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 1893

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. P. 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

761

1 September 1919

Arthur Heasley Meagan
Laura Martha Charlotte Ibbotson

Arthur Heasley Megaw
Laura Martha Charlotte Ibbetson
💍 1919/5483

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
41

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 years

50 Central Terrace, Kelburn, Wellington

4817

1 September 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	761
Date of Notice	1 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Heasley Meagan	Laura Martha Charlotte Ibbotson
BDM Match (94%)	Arthur Heasley Megaw	Laura Martha Charlotte Ibbetson
	💍 1919/5483
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 years
Marriage Place	50 Central Terrace, Kelburn, Wellington
Folio	4817
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

762

1 September 1919

John Robert Hohensee
Violet Gertrude Lock

John Robert Hohensee
Violet Gertrude Lock
💍 1919/5484

Bachelor
Spinster

Wharf Labourer

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
5 months

Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

4818

1 September 1919

Rev. W. E. Hunt

No	762
Date of Notice	1 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robert Hohensee	Violet Gertrude Lock
	💍 1919/5484
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wharf Labourer
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	5 months
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	4818
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Hunt

763

2 September 1919

Edward Robert Norman
Olivia Myrtle Hawes

Edward Robert Norman
Olivia Myrtle Hawes
💍 1919/5795

Bachelor
Spinster

Professional Accountant

27
24

Wellington
Auckland

4 years
21 years

St. Matthew Church, Auckland

5208

2 September 1919

Rev. W. E. Gillam

No	763
Date of Notice	2 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Robert Norman	Olivia Myrtle Hawes
	💍 1919/5795
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Professional Accountant
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew Church, Auckland
Folio	5208
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam

764

2 September 1919

William Henry Smith
Frances Ormsby Arnold

William Henry Smith
Frances Arnsby Arnold
💍 1919/5485

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

31
27

Brooklyn
Lyall Bay

18 years
6 years

St. Thomas Church, Newtown, Wellington

4819

2 September 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	764
Date of Notice	2 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Smith	Frances Ormsby Arnold
BDM Match (95%)	William Henry Smith	Frances Arnsby Arnold
	💍 1919/5485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Lyall Bay
Length of Residence	18 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church, Newtown, Wellington
Folio	4819
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

765

2 September 1919

Wilfred John Blakely
Bessie Louise Cook

Wilfred John Blakeley
Bessie Louise Cook
💍 1919/5487

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

23
24

Petone
Brooklyn

12 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, Wellington

4820

2 September 1919

Rev. B. Hutson

No	765
Date of Notice	2 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred John Blakely	Bessie Louise Cook
BDM Match (98%)	Wilfred John Blakeley	Bessie Louise Cook
	💍 1919/5487
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Petone	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	12 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	4820
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Hutson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).