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 1998

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

1271

29 December 1919

George Kinniburgh Brown
Dorothy Letitia Poole

George Kininburgh Brown
Dorothy Letitia Poole
💍 1920/5521

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Clerk

25
26

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

3 days
12 years

Knox Church Lower Hutt

3231

29 December 1919

Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

No	1271
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Kinniburgh Brown	Dorothy Letitia Poole
BDM Match (96%)	George Kininburgh Brown	Dorothy Letitia Poole
	💍 1920/5521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Clerk
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Lower Hutt
Folio	3231
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

1272

30 December 1919

David Morey Bryan
Winifred Charlotte Sunley

David Moxey Bryan
Winnifred Charlotte Sunley
💍 1919/8460

Bachelor
Spinster

Orchardist

29
24

Karori
Karori

4 days
24 years

St Mary's Church Karori Wellington

8115

30 December 1919

Rev. G. Y. Woodward (Church of England)

No	1272
Date of Notice	30 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Morey Bryan	Winifred Charlotte Sunley
BDM Match (95%)	David Moxey Bryan	Winnifred Charlotte Sunley
	💍 1919/8460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Orchardist
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Karori	Karori
Length of Residence	4 days	24 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Karori Wellington
Folio	8115
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Woodward (Church of England)

1273

30 December 1919

Thomas Carroll
Rosalie Caroline Grieshaber

Thomas Carroll
Rosalie Caroline Grieshaber
💍 1919/8461

Widower 13:9:1913
Widow 6:2:1916

Surveyor

56
59

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
8 months

Residence of Miss Ruby Carstens 4 Nairn Street Wellington

8116

30 December 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

No	1273
Date of Notice	30 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Carroll	Rosalie Caroline Grieshaber
	💍 1919/8461
Condition	Widower 13:9:1913	Widow 6:2:1916
Profession	Surveyor
Age	56	59
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	8 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Ruby Carstens 4 Nairn Street Wellington
Folio	8116
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

1274

30 December 1919

Robert Campbell Begg
Joan Angela Carlisle Rendall

Robert Campbell Begg
Joan Angela Carlisle Kendall
💍 1920/2814

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

33
25

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
20 years

St Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington

54/1920

30 December 1919

Rev. J. Fielden Taylor (Church of England)

No	1274
Date of Notice	30 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Campbell Begg	Joan Angela Carlisle Rendall
BDM Match (98%)	Robert Campbell Begg	Joan Angela Carlisle Kendall
	💍 1920/2814
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	33	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	20 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	54/1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Fielden Taylor (Church of England)

1275

30 December 1919

Harry Humphrey Davy
Margaret Seavell

Harry Humphrey Davy
Margaret Sewell
💍 1919/8462

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

38
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

8117

30 December 1919

Registrar

No	1275
Date of Notice	30 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Humphrey Davy	Margaret Seavell
BDM Match (94%)	Harry Humphrey Davy	Margaret Sewell
	💍 1919/8462
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	38	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	8117
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).