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 1919

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar R. B. Ennor

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

876

2 October 1919

Leslie Watson
Gladys Meban Finlayson

Leslie Watson
Gladys Meban Finlayson
💍 1919/8135

Bachelor
Spinster

Corporation Employee

31
22

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
15 years

Residence of Mr. Longhurst, 5 Picton Avenue, Wellington

7761

2 October 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	876
Date of Notice	2 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Watson	Gladys Meban Finlayson
	💍 1919/8135
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Corporation Employee
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Longhurst, 5 Picton Avenue, Wellington
Folio	7761
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

877

2 October 1919

Gordon Carr Hamel
Florence Ellen Underwood

Gordon Carr Hamel
Florence Ellen Underwood
💍 1919/8136

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Clerk

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
18 years

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South

7762

2 October 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	877
Date of Notice	2 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Carr Hamel	Florence Ellen Underwood
	💍 1919/8136
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Clerk
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South
Folio	7762
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

878

2 October 1919

Percy Leonard Kennedy
Alice Augusta Wood

Percy Leonard Kennedy
Alice Augusta Wood
💍 1919/8137

Bachelor
Spinster

Iron-moulder

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7763

2 October 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	878
Date of Notice	2 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Leonard Kennedy	Alice Augusta Wood
	💍 1919/8137
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Iron-moulder
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7763
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

879

3 October 1919

George Turner
Ida May Cartmill

George Turner
Ida May Cartmill
💍 1919/8138

Bachelor
Spinster

Hardware Assistant

32
32

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
6 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

7764

3 October 1919

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	879
Date of Notice	3 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Turner	Ida May Cartmill
	💍 1919/8138
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hardware Assistant
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	7764
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

880

3 October 1919

Alfred George Lowry
Zeta Myra Moss

Alfred George Lowry
Zeta Myra Moss
💍 1919/8139

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
3 months

Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

7765

3 October 1919

Rev. J. G. Chapman, Methodist

No	880
Date of Notice	3 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred George Lowry	Zeta Myra Moss
	💍 1919/8139
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	7765
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman, Methodist

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).