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 1870

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. P. Benner

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

646

4 August 1919

Cedric Glover Allen
Mary Emily Meched

Cedric Glover Allen
Mary Emily Mexted
💍 1919/5423

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

20
16

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
2 years

St Anne's Church Wellington

4732

George Thomas Allen Father; Helen Lucy Meched Mother

4 August 1919

Rev. M. Devoy

No	646
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cedric Glover Allen	Mary Emily Meched
BDM Match (94%)	Cedric Glover Allen	Mary Emily Mexted
	💍 1919/5423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	20	16
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church Wellington
Folio	4732
Consent	George Thomas Allen Father; Helen Lucy Meched Mother
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy

647

4 August 1919

Bernard Jackson Lee
Madelina Clark

Bernard Jackson Liez
Madelina Clark
💍 1919/5424

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

28
22

Petone
Petone

9 months
15 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4733

4 August 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	647
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard Jackson Lee	Madelina Clark
BDM Match (95%)	Bernard Jackson Liez	Madelina Clark
	💍 1919/5424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	9 months	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4733
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

648

4 August 1919

Harry Edmund Hobson
Marjorie Harriot Humphrey

Harry Edmund Hodson
Marjorie Harriot Humfrey
💍 1919/5401

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

41
32

Blenheim
Lower Hutt

41 years
32 years

St. James' Church Lower Hutt

4734

4 August 1919

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	648
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Edmund Hobson	Marjorie Harriot Humphrey
BDM Match (93%)	Harry Edmund Hodson	Marjorie Harriot Humfrey
	💍 1919/5401
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	41	32
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	41 years	32 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Lower Hutt
Folio	4734
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

649

4 August 1919

Charles Arns
Doris Henrichs

Charles Arns
Doris Henricks
💍 1919/5402

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 years

St. Thomas' Church Newtown Wellington

4735

4 August 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	649
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Arns	Doris Henrichs
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Arns	Doris Henricks
	💍 1919/5402
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	4735
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

650

4 August 1919

David Jones
Dinah Brocklehurst

David Jones
Dinah Brocklehurst
💍 1919/5403

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 1/8/1919

Slaughterman

38
38

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
30 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4736

4 August 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	650
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Jones	Dinah Brocklehurst
	💍 1919/5403
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 1/8/1919
Profession	Slaughterman
Age	38	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	30 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4736
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy 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).