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 1982

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

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

1191

15 December 1919

George Murray Dempster Mackenzie
Sara Anson

George Murray Dempster Mackenzie
Sara Anson
💍 1919/8425

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Proprietor

33
24

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
4 years

St Andrew's Church Wellington

8054

15 December 1919

Rev. J. H. McKenzie Presbyterian

No	1191
Date of Notice	15 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Murray Dempster Mackenzie	Sara Anson
	💍 1919/8425
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Proprietor
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church Wellington
Folio	8054
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. McKenzie Presbyterian

1192

15 December 1919

John Raphael Brennan
Jessie Nesbit

John Raphael Brennan
Jessie Nesbit
💍 1919/8426

Bachelor
Spinster

Woolclasser

31
24

Petone
Petone

5 years
15 years

Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt

8055

15 December 1919

Very Rev. J. J. Lane Roman Catholic

No	1192
Date of Notice	15 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Raphael Brennan	Jessie Nesbit
	💍 1919/8426
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Woolclasser
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	5 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt
Folio	8055
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. J. J. Lane Roman Catholic

1193

16 December 1919

Hubert Francis Herrick
Agnes Amelia Krammer

Hubert Francis Herrick
Agnes Amelia Krammer
💍 1919/8427

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 weeks

Residence of Mrs T. H. Ryley 22 Waripori Street Berhampore Wellington

8056

16 December 1919

Rev. W. Shirer Presbyterian

No	1193
Date of Notice	16 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Francis Herrick	Agnes Amelia Krammer
	💍 1919/8427
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs T. H. Ryley 22 Waripori Street Berhampore Wellington
Folio	8056
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer Presbyterian

1194

16 December 1919

David Leslie Morgan
Frances Helm Hastings

David Leslie Morgan
Frances Helen Hastings
💍 1920/2579

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman

27
25

Johnsonville
Wellington

22 years
25 years

Methodist Church Donald McLean Street Wellington

41/1920

16 December 1919

Rev. W. Rowe Methodist

No	1194
Date of Notice	16 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Leslie Morgan	Frances Helm Hastings
BDM Match (95%)	David Leslie Morgan	Frances Helen Hastings
	💍 1920/2579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Donald McLean Street Wellington
Folio	41/1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Rowe Methodist

1195

16 December 1919

Philip Blaxland Benham
Florence Louise Meadowcroft

Philips Blaxland Benham
Florence Louise Meadowcroft
💍 1919/8428

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

27
26

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
26 years

Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington

8037

16 December 1919

Rev. J. Reed Glasson Congregational

No	1195
Date of Notice	16 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Blaxland Benham	Florence Louise Meadowcroft
BDM Match (98%)	Philips Blaxland Benham	Florence Louise Meadowcroft
	💍 1919/8428
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	26 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	8037
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Reed Glasson Congregational

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).