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 1910

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. E. Bennett

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

844

24 September 1919

George Daniel Reynolds
Margaret Henrietta Liddell

George Daniel Reynolds
Margaret Henrietta Liddell
💍 1919/4318

Bachelor
Spinster

Radio Operator

33
30

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
3 years

Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church, Wellington

4900

24 September 1919

Rev. A. Hunt

No	844
Date of Notice	24 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Daniel Reynolds	Margaret Henrietta Liddell
	💍 1919/4318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Radio Operator
Age	33	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church, Wellington
Folio	4900
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hunt

845

24 September 1919

Hugh Mercer
Margaret Agnes Euphemia Steffert

Hugh Mercer
Margaret Agnes Euphemia Steffert
💍 1919/5525

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

31
19

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
8 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4901

Euphemia Steffert, Mother

24 September 1919

Registrar

No	845
Date of Notice	24 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Mercer	Margaret Agnes Euphemia Steffert
	💍 1919/5525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4901
Consent	Euphemia Steffert, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

846

24 September 1919

David John Cudby
Alice Mary Brant

David John Cudby
Alice Mary Brant
💍 1919/5536

Bachelor
Spinster

Post Office cadet

20
19

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

20 years
2 months

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

4902

John Walter Cudby, Father; Alice Ethel Brant, Mother

24 September 1919

Rev. P. J. Smyth

No	846
Date of Notice	24 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David John Cudby	Alice Mary Brant
	💍 1919/5536
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Post Office cadet
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	20 years	2 months
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	4902
Consent	John Walter Cudby, Father; Alice Ethel Brant, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth

847

24 September 1919

John Hill
Fanny Vera Powne

John Hill
Fanny Vera Fownes
💍 1919/5543

Divorced Decree absolute 20.9.1919
Spinster

Farmer

30
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
31 years

St James' Manse, Wellington South

4903

24 September 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	847
Date of Notice	24 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hill	Fanny Vera Powne
BDM Match (94%)	John Hill	Fanny Vera Fownes
	💍 1919/5543
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 20.9.1919	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	31 years
Marriage Place	St James' Manse, Wellington South
Folio	4903
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

848

24 September 1919

William Reid
Susan Ellen Taylor

William Reid
Susan Ellen Taylor
💍 1919/5544

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 9.7.1919

Soldier

37
39

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4904

24 September 1919

Registrar

No	848
Date of Notice	24 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Reid	Susan Ellen Taylor
	💍 1919/5544
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 9.7.1919
Profession	Soldier
Age	37	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4904
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).