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 1974

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

1151

9 December 1919

Francis Leeson Sheppard
Eliza Catherine Park Davis

Francis Shepperd Leeson
Eliza Catherine Park Davis
💍 1919/8364

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
39

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
30 years

St John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

8017

9 December 1919

Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	1151
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Leeson Sheppard	Eliza Catherine Park Davis
BDM Match (70%)	Francis Shepperd Leeson	Eliza Catherine Park Davis
	💍 1919/8364
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	30 years
Marriage Place	St John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	8017
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

1152

9 December 1919

Henry Cecil Domney
Kathleen Theresa Morrison

Henry Cecil Domney
Kathleen Theresa Morrison
💍 1919/8366

Bachelor
Spinster

Holderup

29
23

Petone
Petone

13 years
16 years

Wesleyan Parsonage, Nelson Street, Petone

8018

9 December 1919

Rev. C. Blair, Methodist

No	1152
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Cecil Domney	Kathleen Theresa Morrison
	💍 1919/8366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Holderup
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	13 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Parsonage, Nelson Street, Petone
Folio	8018
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Blair, Methodist

1153

9 December 1919

Edward Thomas Windrum
Margaret Dennehy

Edward Thomas Windrum
Margaret Denneky
💍 1919/8367

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

34
29

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

34 years
18 years

Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lower Hutt

8019

9 December 1919

Very Rev. J. J. Lane, Roman Catholic

No	1153
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Thomas Windrum	Margaret Dennehy
BDM Match (97%)	Edward Thomas Windrum	Margaret Denneky
	💍 1919/8367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	34 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lower Hutt
Folio	8019
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. J. J. Lane, Roman Catholic

1154

9 December 1919

Joseph David Robertson
Ellen Louisa Gosling

Joseph David Robertson
Ellen Louisa Gosling
💍 1919/8368

Widower 6/12/1915
Spinster

Timber Merchant
Nurse

53
48

Nelson
Wellington

26 years
4 days

St John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

8020

9 December 1919

Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	1154
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph David Robertson	Ellen Louisa Gosling
	💍 1919/8368
Condition	Widower 6/12/1915	Spinster
Profession	Timber Merchant	Nurse
Age	53	48
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Wellington
Length of Residence	26 years	4 days
Marriage Place	St John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	8020
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian

1155

9 December 1919

John James Beattie Craig
Jessie Kathleen Gould

John James Beattie Craig
Jessie Kathleen Gould
💍 1919/8369

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter

32
30

Wellington
Trentham

12 months
12 months

St Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington

8021

9 December 1919

Rev. J. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	1155
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John James Beattie Craig	Jessie Kathleen Gould
	💍 1919/8369
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Trentham
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	8021
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Taylor, 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).