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 1952

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

1041

14 November 1919

William Thomas Mitchell
Mary Ferguson

William Thomas Mitchell
Mary Ferguson
💍 1919/8265

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

28
27

Wellington
Berhampore

3 years
4 years

St Cuthbert Church Berhampore Wellington

7918

14 November 1919

Rev. E. J. Rich, Anglican

No	1041
Date of Notice	14 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Mitchell	Mary Ferguson
	💍 1919/8265
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Berhampore
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Cuthbert Church Berhampore Wellington
Folio	7918
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. J. Rich, Anglican

1042

14 November 1919

John Alexander Sim
Maggie Reid

John Alexander Sim
Maggie Reid
💍 1919/8267

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
23

Tawa Flat
Wellington

20 years
23 years

Registrars Office Wellington

7919

14 November 1919

Registrar

No	1042
Date of Notice	14 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander Sim	Maggie Reid
	💍 1919/8267
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Tawa Flat	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	7919
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

1043

17 November 1919

William Dempsey Kennedy
Ursula Kathrina Devereux

William Dempsey Kennedy
Ursula Katherine Devereux
💍 1919/8268

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

21
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

The Basilica Hill Street Wellington

7920

17 November 1919

Rev. F. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	1043
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Dempsey Kennedy	Ursula Kathrina Devereux
BDM Match (96%)	William Dempsey Kennedy	Ursula Katherine Devereux
	💍 1919/8268
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	7920
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

1044

17 November 1919

Howard Michael Smith
Dorothy Carroll Niku

Howard Michael Smith
Dorothy Carroll Pike
💍 1919/8269

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

23
24

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
24 years

St Thomas' Church Newtown Wellington

7921

17 November 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	1044
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Michael Smith	Dorothy Carroll Niku
BDM Match (95%)	Howard Michael Smith	Dorothy Carroll Pike
	💍 1919/8269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	7921
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

1045

17 November 1919

Frederic Henry Valentine Fielder
Ellen Elizabeth Hill

Frederic Henry Valentine Fielder
Ellen Elizabeth Hill
💍 1919/8270

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

27
27

Hataitai
Newtown

27 years
10 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

7922

17 November 1919

Rev. J. G. Chapman, Methodist

No	1045
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Henry Valentine Fielder	Ellen Elizabeth Hill
	💍 1919/8270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Hataitai	Newtown
Length of Residence	27 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	7922
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman, Methodist

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).