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 1872

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

656

5 August 1919

Herbert William Hutchinson
Eda Carlyle

Herbert William Hutchinson
Eda Carlyle
💍 1919/5409

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 4/8/1919

Clerk

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 years

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

4742

5 August 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	656
Date of Notice	5 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert William Hutchinson	Eda Carlyle
	💍 1919/5409
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 4/8/1919
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	4742
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

657

6 August 1919

William Samuel Death
Victoria May Ramsbotham

William Samuel Death
Victoria May Ramsbatham
💍 1919/5410

Bachelor
Spinster

Butter maker

28
22

Levin
Wellington

13 years
22 years

St. James' Church Adelaide Road Wellington

4743

6 August 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	657
Date of Notice	6 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Samuel Death	Victoria May Ramsbotham
BDM Match (98%)	William Samuel Death	Victoria May Ramsbatham
	💍 1919/5410
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butter maker
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Levin	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Adelaide Road Wellington
Folio	4743
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

658

6 August 1919

Donald Sinclair Levack
Ellen Louisa Aldridge

Donald Sinclair Levack
Ellen Louisa Aldridge
💍 1919/5412

Bachelor
Spinster

Billiard Marker

26
26

Wellington
Wellington

11 weeks
6 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

4744

6 August 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	658
Date of Notice	6 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Sinclair Levack	Ellen Louisa Aldridge
	💍 1919/5412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Billiard Marker
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 weeks	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4744
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

659

6 August 1919

Frederick Otto Dunkley
Mary Anne Kennedy

Frederick Otto Dunkley
Mary Anne Kennedy
💍 1919/5413

Widower 10/11/1917
Spinster

Linotype Expert

30
29

Khandallah
Khandallah

3 days
3 weeks

Roman Catholic Church Khandallah

4745

6 August 1919

Very Rev. Dean Lane

No	659
Date of Notice	6 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Otto Dunkley	Mary Anne Kennedy
	💍 1919/5413
Condition	Widower 10/11/1917	Spinster
Profession	Linotype Expert
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Khandallah
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Khandallah
Folio	4745
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean Lane

660

7 August 1919

Henry William Cameron
Emma Spencer

Henry William Cameron
Emma Spencer
💍 1919/5414

Bachelor
Spinster

Club Steward

26
21

Northland
Wellington

3 months
6 years

St. James' Church Newtown Wellington

4746

7 August 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	660
Date of Notice	7 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry William Cameron	Emma Spencer
	💍 1919/5414
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Club Steward
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Northland	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	4746
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 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).