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 1967

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar W. W. Samson

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

1116

2 December 1919

William Torrance Irvine
Alice Raven Macdonald

William Torrance Irvine
Alice Raven Macdonald
💍 1919/8333

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Official

28
26

Palmerston North
Wellington

8 years
19 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

7986

2 December 1919

Rev. H. Watson Anglican

No	1116
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Torrance Irvine	Alice Raven Macdonald
	💍 1919/8333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Official
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	7986
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson Anglican

1117

2 December 1919

Joseph Antoni D'Orsa
Maud May Sterling

Joseph Antoni D'Orsa
Maud May Sterling
💍 1919/8334

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 28/11/1919

Blacksmith

35
37

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
12 months

Residence of Mrs Sterling 29 Emerson Street Wellington

7987

2 December 1919

Rev. J. F. Taylor Anglican

No	1117
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Antoni D'Orsa	Maud May Sterling
	💍 1919/8334
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 28/11/1919
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	35	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Sterling 29 Emerson Street Wellington
Folio	7987
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Taylor Anglican

1118

2 December 1919

Alfred Chambers
Katherine Maria Ross

Alfred Chambers
Katherine Marion Ross
💍 1919/8335

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
32

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
6 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

7988

2 December 1919

Rev. J. Taylor Anglican

No	1118
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Chambers	Katherine Maria Ross
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Chambers	Katherine Marion Ross
	💍 1919/8335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	7988
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Taylor Anglican

1119

3 December 1919

Lindsay Merritt Inglis
Agnes May Todd

Lindsay Merritt Inglis
Agnes May Todd
💍 1919/8336

Bachelor
Spinster

Law clerk

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 months

Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington

7989

3 December 1919

Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian

No	1119
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lindsay Merritt Inglis	Agnes May Todd
	💍 1919/8336
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington
Folio	7989
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian

1120

3 December 1919

Cyril Godfrey Langridge
Emily Mary Pritchard

Cyril Godfrey Langridge
Emily Mary Pritchard
💍 1919/8337

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

24
24

Wellington
Karori

3 days
8 years

Church of England Karori Wellington

7990

3 December 1919

Rev. G. Y. Woodward Anglican

No	1120
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Godfrey Langridge	Emily Mary Pritchard
	💍 1919/8337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Karori
Length of Residence	3 days	8 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Karori Wellington
Folio	7990
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Woodward Anglican

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).