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 1946

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar R. G. Crombie

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

1011

10 November 1919

Ernest Tinsley Jackson
Mary Jane Hall Dorant

Ernest Tinsley Jackson
Mary Jane Hall Dorant
💍 1919/8235

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocers Assistant

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
Life

Salvation Army Training College, Aro Street, Wellington

7888

10 November 1919

Brigadier W. Gist, Salvation Army

No	1011
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Tinsley Jackson	Mary Jane Hall Dorant
	💍 1919/8235
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocers Assistant
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	Life
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Training College, Aro Street, Wellington
Folio	7888
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Brigadier W. Gist, Salvation Army

1012

10 November 1919

Gordon Rowland Herbert Irvine
Marion Susie Nicholls

Gordon Rowland Herbert Irvine
Marion Susie Nicholls
💍 1919/8236

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
14 years

Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

7889

10 November 1919

Rev. J. J. Chapman, Methodist

No	1012
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Rowland Herbert Irvine	Marion Susie Nicholls
	💍 1919/8236
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	7889
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Chapman, Methodist

1013

10 November 1919

George Lockwood
Edith Ellen Anderson

George Lockwood
Edith Ellen Anderson
💍 1919/8237

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

25
25

Petone
Wellington

23 years
23 years

St Marks Church, Wellington

7890

10 November 1919

Rev. A. J. B. Page, Anglican

No	1013
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lockwood	Edith Ellen Anderson
	💍 1919/8237
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Church, Wellington
Folio	7890
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. B. Page, Anglican

1014

10 November 1919

Timothy Kearins
Margaret Levett

Timothy Kearins
Margaret Levett
💍 1919/8238

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 years

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

7891

10 November 1919

Rev. P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

No	1014
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Timothy Kearins	Margaret Levett
	💍 1919/8238
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	7891
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth, Roman Catholic

1015

10 November 1919

Edmund Laurence Enting
Gladys Evelyn Foote

Edmund Laurenz Enting
Gladys Evelyn Foote
💍 1919/8239

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
25 years

St James Manse, Wellington South

7892

10 November 1919

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	1015
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Laurence Enting	Gladys Evelyn Foote
BDM Match (95%)	Edmund Laurenz Enting	Gladys Evelyn Foote
	💍 1919/8239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	25 years
Marriage Place	St James Manse, Wellington South
Folio	7892
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, 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).