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 1924

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

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

901

8 October 1919

Frederick Edward White
Gwendoline Laura Smith

Frederick Edward White
Gwendoline Laura Smith
💍 1919/4546

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
15 months

All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington

7784

8 October 1919

Rev. J. H. Sykes, Anglican

No	901
Date of Notice	8 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Edward White	Gwendoline Laura Smith
	💍 1919/4546
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	15 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie Wellington
Folio	7784
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes, Anglican

902

8 October 1919

Joseph Taylor
Edith Wilson

Joseph Taylor
Edith Wilson
💍 1919/4547

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 21/12/1917

Grocer

29
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

7785

8 October 1919

Registrar

No	902
Date of Notice	8 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Taylor	Edith Wilson
	💍 1919/4547
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 21/12/1917
Profession	Grocer
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7785
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

903

9 October 1919

William Davis
Mona Florence Mary Parker

William Davis
Mona Florence Mary Parker
💍 1919/4548

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

29
21

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
Life

St Mark's Church Wellington

7786

9 October 1919

Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

No	903
Date of Notice	9 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Davis	Mona Florence Mary Parker
	💍 1919/4548
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	Life
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	7786
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

904

9 October 1919

Francis Giraud Coleman
Nellie Isabel Packer

Francis Girand Coleman
Nellie Isabel Packer
💍 1919/4549

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

32
28

Wellington
Wellington

28 years
17 years

St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington

7787

9 October 1919

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	904
Date of Notice	9 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Giraud Coleman	Nellie Isabel Packer
BDM Match (98%)	Francis Girand Coleman	Nellie Isabel Packer
	💍 1919/4549
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	28 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	7787
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

905

9 October 1919

Thomas George Walker
Mary Matilda Osborne

Thomas George Walker
Mary Matilda Osborne
💍 1919/4550

Bachelor
Spinster

Masseur

33
33

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
26 years

Residence of Mr. J. Osborne 338 The Parade Island Bay Wellington

7788

9 October 1919

Rev. D. B. Forde Carlisle, Undenominational Mission

No	905
Date of Notice	9 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Walker	Mary Matilda Osborne
	💍 1919/4550
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Masseur
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Osborne 338 The Parade Island Bay Wellington
Folio	7788
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. B. Forde Carlisle, Undenominational Mission

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).