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 1886

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. G. Evans

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

726

25 August 1919

Ernest Walker
Alice Emma Hobbs

Ernest Walker
Alice Emma Hobbs
💍 1919/5513

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor mechanic

22
20

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

10 years
20 years 8 months

Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

4795

Archibald John Hobbs

25 August 1919

Rev. J. Real

No	726
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Walker	Alice Emma Hobbs
	💍 1919/5513
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor mechanic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	10 years	20 years 8 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	4795
Consent	Archibald John Hobbs
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Real

727

25 August 1919

John Gordon Harcourt
Dorothy Le Keat Millais

John Gordon Harcourt
Dorothy Le Geyt Millais
💍 1919/5514

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

29
28

Lower Hutt
Wellington

29 years
28 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral

4796

25 August 1919

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	727
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gordon Harcourt	Dorothy Le Keat Millais
BDM Match (96%)	John Gordon Harcourt	Dorothy Le Geyt Millais
	💍 1919/5514
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	29 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral
Folio	4796
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

728

25 August 1919

Claude Hamilton Howard
Daisy Levy

Claude Hamilton Howard
Daisy Levy
💍 1919/5515

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman

35
29

Wellington
Wellington

7 1/2 years
24 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral

4797

25 August 1919

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	728
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Hamilton Howard	Daisy Levy
	💍 1919/5515
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 1/2 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral
Folio	4797
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

729

25 August 1919

William Charles Heal
Mary Cicely Rigg

William Charles Neal
Mary Cicely Rigg
💍 1919/5516

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
22 years

St. Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington

4798

25 August 1919

Rev. W. H. Campbell

No	729
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Charles Heal	Mary Cicely Rigg
BDM Match (98%)	William Charles Neal	Mary Cicely Rigg
	💍 1919/5516
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington
Folio	4798
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Campbell

730

25 August 1919

William James Capon
Hilda Ellen Elizabeth Irving

William James Capon
Hilda Ellen Elizabeth Irving
💍 1919/5517

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
19

Wellington
Wellington South

3 months
2 years

St. James's Church, Wellington South

4799

David James Oldham Irving

25 August 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	730
Date of Notice	25 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Capon	Hilda Ellen Elizabeth Irving
	💍 1919/5517
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	3 months	2 years
Marriage Place	St. James's Church, Wellington South
Folio	4799
Consent	David James Oldham Irving
Date of Certificate	25 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).