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 1940

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

981

29 October 1919

Harold Iremonger
Winifred Want

Harold Iremanger
Winifred Want
💍 1919/8229

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
19

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
3 days

All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington

7859

No person in New Zealand having authority to give consent

13 November 1919

Rev J. H. Sykes, Anglican

No	981
Date of Notice	29 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Iremonger	Winifred Want
BDM Match (97%)	Harold Iremanger	Winifred Want
	💍 1919/8229
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington
Folio	7859
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. Sykes, Anglican

982

30 October 1919

Walter John Richard Hahn
Elizabeth Matthews

Walter John Richard Hahn
Elizabeth Matthews
💍 1919/8207

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer

29
33

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 years

St Peters Church Wellington

7860

30 October 1919

Rev H. Watson, Anglican

No	982
Date of Notice	30 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Richard Hahn	Elizabeth Matthews
	💍 1919/8207
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer
Age	29	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Wellington
Folio	7860
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev H. Watson, Anglican

983

30 October 1919

Alfred Edward Trinder
Agnes Mary Vicars

Alfred Edward Trinder
Agnes Mary Vicars
💍 1919/8208

Bachelor
Divorcee (Divorced Decree absolute 31/1/1919)

Tramway Employee

19
22

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
10 months

Registrars Office Wellington

7861

Elizabeth Keziah Trinder (mother)

30 October 1919

Registrar

No	983
Date of Notice	30 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Trinder	Agnes Mary Vicars
	💍 1919/8208
Condition	Bachelor	Divorcee (Divorced Decree absolute 31/1/1919)
Profession	Tramway Employee
Age	19	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	7861
Consent	Elizabeth Keziah Trinder (mother)
Date of Certificate	30 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

984

30 October 1919

Taku Katene
Eleanor Te Anau Keach

Taku Katene
Eleanor Te Anau Keach
💍 1919/8209

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
25

Porirua
Porirua

24 years
4 months

Registrars Office Wellington

7862

30 October 1919

Registrar

No	984
Date of Notice	30 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Taku Katene	Eleanor Te Anau Keach
	💍 1919/8209
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	24 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	7862
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

985

30 October 1919

Herbert Mendelson McGirr
Dorothea Theresa Daly

Herbert Mendelson McGirr
Dorothea Theresa Daly
💍 1919/8210

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
23

Seatoun
Wellington

Life
3 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington

7863

30 October 1919

Rev J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	985
Date of Notice	30 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Mendelson McGirr	Dorothea Theresa Daly
	💍 1919/8210
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Seatoun	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington
Folio	7863
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott, 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).