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 1942

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

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

991

31 October 1919

Allan Stead
Jane Isabella Bennetto

Allan Stead
Jane Isabella Bennetto
💍 1919/8215

Widower 27/10/1916
Spinster

Ironmonger

36
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

St Andrews Church, Wellington

7868

31 October 1919

Rev. S. K. Orr, Presbyterian

No	991
Date of Notice	31 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Stead	Jane Isabella Bennetto
	💍 1919/8215
Condition	Widower 27/10/1916	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Wellington
Folio	7868
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. K. Orr, Presbyterian

992

1 November 1919

Peter Fraser
Janet Henderson Munro

Peter Fraser
Janet Henderson Munro
💍 1919/8216

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 4/10/1919

Waterside worker

35
36

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
4 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7869

1 November 1919

Registrar

No	992
Date of Notice	1 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Fraser	Janet Henderson Munro
	💍 1919/8216
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 4/10/1919
Profession	Waterside worker
Age	35	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7869
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

993

3 November 1919

Theodore Naul Dyke
Jessie Gardner

Theodore Paul Dyke
Jessie Gardner
💍 1919/8218

Bachelor
Widow 25/11/1917

Clerk

38
35

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
12 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7870

3 November 1919

Registrar

No	993
Date of Notice	3 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Theodore Naul Dyke	Jessie Gardner
BDM Match (97%)	Theodore Paul Dyke	Jessie Gardner
	💍 1919/8218
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 25/11/1917
Profession	Clerk
Age	38	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7870
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

994

3 November 1919

William David McWilliams
Minnie Jannetta Adams

William David McWilliams
Minnie Jannetta Adams
💍 1919/8219

Bachelor
Spinster

Poster writer

35
24

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
7 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

7871

3 November 1919

Rev. J. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	994
Date of Notice	3 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William David McWilliams	Minnie Jannetta Adams
	💍 1919/8219
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Poster writer
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	7871
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Taylor, Anglican

995

3 November 1919

Leslie William Woolley
Elizabeth Maude Bavins

Leslie William Woolley
Elizabeth Maude Cairns
💍 1919/8220

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
13 years

Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington

7872

3 November 1919

Rev. T. K. Ewen, Baptist

No	995
Date of Notice	3 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie William Woolley	Elizabeth Maude Bavins
BDM Match (93%)	Leslie William Woolley	Elizabeth Maude Cairns
	💍 1919/8220
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	13 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington
Folio	7872
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. K. Ewen, Baptist

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).