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 1972

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar R. C. 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

1141

8 December 1919

Vernon Mattai John Bognuda
Lily Camm

Vernon Mattai John Bognuda
Lily Camm
💍 1919/8356

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

21
22

Newtown
Petone

5 years
18 months

St Thomas Church Wellington South.

8009

8 December 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	1141
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vernon Mattai John Bognuda	Lily Camm
	💍 1919/8356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Newtown	Petone
Length of Residence	5 years	18 months
Marriage Place	St Thomas Church Wellington South.
Folio	8009
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

1142

8 December 1919

Robert Barnett Cooper.
Myrtle McKay.

Robert Barnett Cooper
Myrtle McKay
💍 1919/8357

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
10 months

St James church Adelaide Road Wellington.

8010

8 December 1919

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	1142
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Barnett Cooper.	Myrtle McKay.
BDM Match (94%)	Robert Barnett Cooper	Myrtle McKay
	💍 1919/8357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	10 months
Marriage Place	St James church Adelaide Road Wellington.
Folio	8010
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

1143

8 December 1919

Kenneth Ernest Adams.
Jessie Whittaker

Kenneth Ernest Adams
Jessie Whittaker
💍 1919/8497

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

25
22

Levin
Wellington

7 months
6 years.

Church of England Brooklyn.

8129

8 December 1919

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

No	1143
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Ernest Adams.	Jessie Whittaker
BDM Match (98%)	Kenneth Ernest Adams	Jessie Whittaker
	💍 1919/8497
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Levin	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	6 years.
Marriage Place	Church of England Brooklyn.
Folio	8129
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

1144

8 December 1919

Victor Percy Stuart
Thelma May Bailey.

Victor Percy Stuart
Thelma May Bailey
💍 1919/8358

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant.

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
16 years.

Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington.

8011

8 December 1919

Rev. A. Hunt. Congregational

No	1144
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Percy Stuart	Thelma May Bailey.
BDM Match (97%)	Victor Percy Stuart	Thelma May Bailey
	💍 1919/8358
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant.
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	16 years.
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington.
Folio	8011
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hunt. Congregational

1145

8 December 1919

John Sutherland Prentice
Doris Antoinette Bagley.

John Sutherland Prentice
Doris Antoinette Bagley
💍 1919/8032

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant.
Teacher of Music

28
24

Wellington
Dunedin.

4 years
24 years.

Presbyterian Church Albert Street St Kilda Dunedin.

7650

8 December 1919

Rev. J. Miller. Presbyterian

No	1145
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sutherland Prentice	Doris Antoinette Bagley.
BDM Match (98%)	John Sutherland Prentice	Doris Antoinette Bagley
	💍 1919/8032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant.	Teacher of Music
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin.
Length of Residence	4 years	24 years.
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Albert Street St Kilda Dunedin.
Folio	7650
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Miller. 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).