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 1973

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar R. O. Ennis

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

1146

8 December 1919

Stanley Sarguss
Lily Elizabeth Bird

Stanley Targuse
Lily Elizabeth Burd
💍 1919/8359

Bachelor
Spinster

Proof Reader

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
22 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Newtown, Wellington

8012

8 December 1919

Rev. E. Drake, Methodist

No	1146
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Sarguss	Lily Elizabeth Bird
BDM Match (91%)	Stanley Targuse	Lily Elizabeth Burd
	💍 1919/8359
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Proof Reader
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Newtown, Wellington
Folio	8012
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Drake, Methodist

1147

9 December 1919

Douglas Gordon Jack
Daisy Maud Wilson Bock

Douglas Gordon Jack
Daisy Maud Wilson Lock
💍 1919/8360

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

31
25

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
5 years

St Albans Church, Eastbourne, Wellington

8013

9 December 1919

Rev. D. M. Stunt, Anglican

No	1147
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Gordon Jack	Daisy Maud Wilson Bock
BDM Match (98%)	Douglas Gordon Jack	Daisy Maud Wilson Lock
	💍 1919/8360
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Albans Church, Eastbourne, Wellington
Folio	8013
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. M. Stunt, Anglican

1148

9 December 1919

Benjamin Arthur Waide
Matilda Joy Firth

Benjamin Arthur Waide
Matilda Ivy Firth
💍 1919/8361

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
21

Petone
Petone

9 months
21 years

St Augustine's Church, Petone

8014

9 December 1919

Rev. H. A. Walke, Anglican

No	1148
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Arthur Waide	Matilda Joy Firth
BDM Match (94%)	Benjamin Arthur Waide	Matilda Ivy Firth
	💍 1919/8361
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	9 months	21 years
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	8014
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. A. Walke, Anglican

1149

9 December 1919

Samuel Richard Brown
Ivy May Solomon

Samuel Richard Brown
Ivy May Solomon
💍 1919/8362

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine Driver

27
18

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
18 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

8015

William John Solomon, Father

9 December 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	1149
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Richard Brown	Ivy May Solomon
	💍 1919/8362
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	8015
Consent	William John Solomon, Father
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

1150

9 December 1919

Norman Arthur Burgess
Elizabeth Jane Lawson

Norman Arthur Burgess
Elizabeth June Lauson
💍 1919/8363

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
2 years

Residence of Mr. A. Halley, Connaught Terrace, Brooklyn, Wellington

8016

9 December 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	1150
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Arthur Burgess	Elizabeth Jane Lawson
BDM Match (95%)	Norman Arthur Burgess	Elizabeth June Lauson
	💍 1919/8363
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. A. Halley, Connaught Terrace, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	8016
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

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).