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 1996

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar R. 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

1261

24 December 1919

Edmund Hugh Haythorne
Margaret Richardson

Edmund Hugh Haythorne
Margaret Richardson
💍 1920/2860

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School teacher

24
25

Plimmerton
Plimmerton

5 days
6 months

St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington

148/1920

24 December 1919

Rev. S. Mahony (Roman Catholic)

No	1261
Date of Notice	24 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Hugh Haythorne	Margaret Richardson
	💍 1920/2860
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School teacher
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Plimmerton	Plimmerton
Length of Residence	5 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	148/1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony (Roman Catholic)

1262

29 December 1919

Leslie Edmund Cotton
Daisy Florence Marion Black

Leslie Edmund Cotton
Daisy Florence Marion Black
💍 1919/8477

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
20 years

Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington

8108

29 December 1919

Rev. W. Day (Presbyterian)

No	1262
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Edmund Cotton	Daisy Florence Marion Black
	💍 1919/8477
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington
Folio	8108
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Day (Presbyterian)

1263

29 December 1919

Frederick Read
Georgina Hooker

Frederick Read
Georgina Hooker
💍 1919/8478

Widower 2 September 1917
Spinster

Grocer

36
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 year

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

8109

29 December 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

No	1263
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Read	Georgina Hooker
	💍 1919/8478
Condition	Widower 2 September 1917	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	36	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 year
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	8109
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

1264

29 December 1919

Ronald James Miller
Clarice Gardner Rosie

Ronald James Miller
Clarice Gardner Rosie
💍 1919/8455

Bachelor
Widow 16 September 1916

Farmer

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 days

St Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington

8110

29 December 1919

Rev. H. Watson (Church of England)

No	1264
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald James Miller	Clarice Gardner Rosie
	💍 1919/8455
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 16 September 1916
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	8110
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson (Church of England)

1265

29 December 1919

George Murray Ness
Margaret Ann Yates

George Murray Ness
Margaret Ann Yates
💍 1919/8456

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 19 November 1919

Mercer

27
32

Wellington
Miramar

9 years
18 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

8111

29 December 1919

Registrar

No	1265
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Murray Ness	Margaret Ann Yates
	💍 1919/8456
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 19 November 1919
Profession	Mercer
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Miramar
Length of Residence	9 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	8111
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 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).