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 1874

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

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

666

8 August 1919

William Horatio Candy
Sarah Corcoran

William Horatio Candy
Sarah Corcoran
💍 1919/5468

Bachelor
Spinster

Wireless Officer

27
29

S.S. Port Pirie
Wellington

9 months
18 months

St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

4752

8 August 1919

Rev. J. F. O'Connor

No	666
Date of Notice	8 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Horatio Candy	Sarah Corcoran
	💍 1919/5468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wireless Officer
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	S.S. Port Pirie	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	18 months
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	4752
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. O'Connor

667

8 August 1919

Alexander Nisbet McRobie
Nellie Toomer

Alexander Nisbet McRobie
Nellie Toomer
💍 1919/5469

Bachelor
Spinster

Stevedore

26
30

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
8 years

Presbyterian Manse 328 Woolcombe Street Wellington

4753

8 August 1919

Rev. J. Gibb

No	667
Date of Notice	8 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Nisbet McRobie	Nellie Toomer
	💍 1919/5469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stevedore
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse 328 Woolcombe Street Wellington
Folio	4753
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

668

8 August 1919

Percy Harwood Oliver
Ruby Lily Pleasant

Percy Harwood Oliver
Ruby Lily Pleasant
💍 1919/5470

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Plumber

30
23

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
Life

St Mark's Church Wellington

4754

8 August 1919

Rev. A. J. B. Page

No	668
Date of Notice	8 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Harwood Oliver	Ruby Lily Pleasant
	💍 1919/5470
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Plumber
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	Life
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	4754
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. B. Page

669

9 August 1919

Frederick Osmond Austin
Christina Marion Stevens

Frederic Ormond Austin
Christina Marion Stevens
💍 1919/5471

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

33
27

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

1 week
27 years

Knox Church Lower Hutt

4755

9 August 1919

Rev. J. McCaw

No	669
Date of Notice	9 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Osmond Austin	Christina Marion Stevens
BDM Match (96%)	Frederic Ormond Austin	Christina Marion Stevens
	💍 1919/5471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	1 week	27 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Lower Hutt
Folio	4755
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw

670

9 August 1919

Harold Douglas Tennent
Ruth Lois Cleeve-Edwards

Harold Douglas Tennent
Ruth Lois Cleeve-Edwards
💍 1919/5472

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

37
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
7 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington

4756

9 August 1919

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	670
Date of Notice	9 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Douglas Tennent	Ruth Lois Cleeve-Edwards
	💍 1919/5472
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	37	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	7 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington
Folio	4756
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).