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 1908

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. O. Enness

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

834

4 September 1919

John Parker Hammond
Katherine Ellen Berthold

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

35
25

Lower Hutt
Kilbirnie

Life
7 Years

St. Anne's Church Newtown Wellington

4891

20 September 1919

Rev. M. Devoy

No	834
Date of Notice	4 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Parker Hammond	Katherine Ellen Berthold
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	35	25
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	Life	7 Years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	4891
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy

835

5 September 1919

Eric Stewart Burgess
Beatrice Underdown

Eric Stewart Burgess
Beatrice Underdown
💍 1919/4309

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
21

Wellington
S.S. Moeraki

5 Days
3 Days

St. Peters Church Willis St. Wellington

4892

20 September 1919

Rev. H. Watson

No	835
Date of Notice	5 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Stewart Burgess	Beatrice Underdown
	💍 1919/4309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	S.S. Moeraki
Length of Residence	5 Days	3 Days
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church Willis St. Wellington
Folio	4892
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

836

6 September 1919

Edward William Dooley
Margaret Frances Gallagher

Edward William Dooley
Margaret Frances Gallagher
💍 1919/4310

Widower 10/9/1913
Spinster

Company Secretary

35
25

Wellington
Wellington

13 Years
Life

St. Joseph's Church Buckle St. Wellington

4893

23 September 1919

Rev. T. Segrief

No	836
Date of Notice	6 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward William Dooley	Margaret Frances Gallagher
	💍 1919/4310
Condition	Widower 10/9/1913	Spinster
Profession	Company Secretary
Age	35	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 Years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle St. Wellington
Folio	4893
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Segrief

837

7 September 1919

Archie Arthur Williamson
Jeannette Eileen Christensen

Archie Arthur Williamson
Jeanette Eileen Christensen
💍 1919/4311

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
13 Years

St. Thomas Church Newtown Wellington

4894

23 September 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	837
Date of Notice	7 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archie Arthur Williamson	Jeannette Eileen Christensen
BDM Match (98%)	Archie Arthur Williamson	Jeanette Eileen Christensen
	💍 1919/4311
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	13 Years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	4894
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

838

8 September 1919

Alfred Onslow Daysh
Edith Maude Jounnax

Alfred Onslow Daysh
Edith Maude Jounnox
💍 1919/4313

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Thomas Church Wellington South

4895

23 September 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	838
Date of Notice	8 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Onslow Daysh	Edith Maude Jounnax
BDM Match (97%)	Alfred Onslow Daysh	Edith Maude Jounnox
	💍 1919/4313
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church Wellington South
Folio	4895
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

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).