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 1920

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

881

3 October 1919

James Campbell
Grace Emily Harrington

James Campbell
Grace Emily Harrington
💍 1919/8140

Bachelor
Spinster

Postman

29
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
18 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

7766

3 October 1919

Registrar

No	881
Date of Notice	3 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Campbell	Grace Emily Harrington
	💍 1919/8140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postman
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7766
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

882

4 October 1919

John Arthur Frank Cundy
May Emma Tate

John Arthur Frank Cundy
May Emma Tarr
💍 1919/8141

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
30

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
6 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

7767

4 October 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	882
Date of Notice	4 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Arthur Frank Cundy	May Emma Tate
BDM Match (92%)	John Arthur Frank Cundy	May Emma Tarr
	💍 1919/8141
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7767
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

883

6 October 1919

Ernest Price
Ina Louise Drummond

Ernest Price
Ina Louisa Drummond
💍 1919/8142

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

33
32

Petone
Petone

33 years
17 years

St. David's Church Petone

7768

6 October 1919

Rev. J. McCaw, Presbyterian

No	883
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Price	Ina Louise Drummond
BDM Match (97%)	Ernest Price	Ina Louisa Drummond
	💍 1919/8142
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	33 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church Petone
Folio	7768
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw, Presbyterian

884

6 October 1919

Allan Wallace Muir
Elsie Edith Quinn

Allan Wallace Muir
Elsie Edith Quinn
💍 1919/8144

Bachelor
Spinster

Linotype Operator

23
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
14 years

St. Andrew's Church Wellington

7769

6 October 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	884
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Wallace Muir	Elsie Edith Quinn
	💍 1919/8144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linotype Operator
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church Wellington
Folio	7769
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

885

6 October 1919

John Francis O'Leary
Ruby Ethel Marchant

John Francis O'Leary
Ruby Ethel Marchant
💍 1919/8145

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

36
34

Wellington
Wellington

12 days
10 years

St. Anne's Church Newtown Wellington

7770

6 October 1919

Rev. T. S. Segrief, Roman Catholic

No	885
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Francis O'Leary	Ruby Ethel Marchant
	💍 1919/8145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	36	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 days	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	7770
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. S. Segrief, Roman Catholic

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).