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 1936

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar V. G. Edmunds

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

961

24 October 1919

Gum Leong Lowe
Low Foon Wong

Gum Leong Lowe
Low Foon Wong
💍 1919/8187

Widower 7/1/1915
Spinster

Fruiterer

35
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
2 days

Anglican Chinese Mission Hall, Frederick Street, Wellington (new arrival from China)

7840

24 October 1919

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	961
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gum Leong Lowe	Low Foon Wong
	💍 1919/8187
Condition	Widower 7/1/1915	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	35	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	2 days
Marriage Place	Anglican Chinese Mission Hall, Frederick Street, Wellington (new arrival from China)
Folio	7840
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

962

24 October 1919

Gar Sui Wong
Mew Yung Wong

Gar Qui Wong
New Yung Wong
💍 1919/8188

Previously married in China
Previously married in China to each other

Fruiterer

34
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 days

Residence of Mrs. Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington (new arrival from China)

7841

24 October 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	962
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gar Sui Wong	Mew Yung Wong
BDM Match (92%)	Gar Qui Wong	New Yung Wong
	💍 1919/8188
Condition	Previously married in China	Previously married in China to each other
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	34	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington (new arrival from China)
Folio	7841
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

963

24 October 1919

Wong Chow Hing
Fong Ping

Wong Chow Hing
Fong Ping
💍 1919/8496

Previously married in China
Previously married in China to each other

Fruiterer

34
30

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
2 days

Residence of Mrs. Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington (new arrival from China)

8128

24 October 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

No	963
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wong Chow Hing	Fong Ping
	💍 1919/8496
Condition	Previously married in China	Previously married in China to each other
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Wong, 4 Mortimer Terrace, Wellington (new arrival from China)
Folio	8128
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, Presbyterian

964

25 October 1919

William James Burman
Olga Matilda Bennett

William James Burman
Olga Matilda Bennett
💍 1919/8189

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 24/10/1919

Seaman

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7842

25 October 1919

Registrar

No	964
Date of Notice	25 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Burman	Olga Matilda Bennett
	💍 1919/8189
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 24/10/1919
Profession	Seaman
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7842
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

965

26 October 1919

Wong Yen Guy
Ng Too Kum

Wong Yen Guy
Ng Too Kum
💍 1919/8190

Bachelor
Spinster

Green-grocer

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Residence of Mr J. W. McCluskey, 5 Adams Street, Brooklyn, Wellington

7843

26 October 1919

Rev. S. Beckingham, Baptist

No	965
Date of Notice	26 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wong Yen Guy	Ng Too Kum
	💍 1919/8190
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Green-grocer
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr J. W. McCluskey, 5 Adams Street, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	7843
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Beckingham, 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).