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 1965

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

1106

29 November 1919

George Thomas Adams
Pauline Edith May Davy

George Thomas Adams
Pauline Edith May Davy
💍 1919/8350

Bachelor
Spinster

Hatter

32
24

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
3 days

Registrars Office Wellington

7979

29 November 1919

Registrar

No	1106
Date of Notice	29 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Thomas Adams	Pauline Edith May Davy
	💍 1919/8350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hatter
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	7979
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

1107

29 November 1919

James Alexander Maitland
Florence Robert Johnston

James Alexander Maitland
Florence Robert Johnston
💍 1919/9716

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

24
21

Petone
Petone

1 week
1 week

St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington

9510

29 November 1919

Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

No	1107
Date of Notice	29 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alexander Maitland	Florence Robert Johnston
	💍 1919/9716
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	9510
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

1108

29 November 1919

Hugh Edward McCormick
Daisy Ratcliffe

Hugh Edward McCormick
Daisy Ratcliffe
💍 1919/9717

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

33
21

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
7 months

St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington

9511

29 November 1919

Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

No	1108
Date of Notice	29 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Edward McCormick	Daisy Ratcliffe
	💍 1919/9717
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	7 months
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	9511
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

1109

2 December 1919

John Henry Bell
Lily Mary Jane Daly

John Henry Bell
Lily Mary Jane Daly
💍 1919/8351

Widower 24/6/1919
Widow 19/11/1918

Engineer

50
46

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
45 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

7980

2 December 1919

Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	1109
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Bell	Lily Mary Jane Daly
	💍 1919/8351
Condition	Widower 24/6/1919	Widow 19/11/1918
Profession	Engineer
Age	50	46
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	45 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	7980
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

1110

2 December 1919

Leonard Frank Miller
Winifred Belinda Walker

Leonard Frank Miller
Winifred Belinda Walker
💍 1919/8352

Bachelor
Spinster

Pianoforte Tuner

23
20

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

4 years
3 months

Baptist Church Brooklyn Wellington

7981

Thomas Walker, Father

2 December 1919

Rev. W. S. Rollings, Baptist

No	1110
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Frank Miller	Winifred Belinda Walker
	💍 1919/8352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pianoforte Tuner
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	4 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Brooklyn Wellington
Folio	7981
Consent	Thomas Walker, Father
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Rollings, Baptist

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).