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 1866

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. E. Bennett

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

626

29 July 1919

Luke Joseph Quealey
Annie Beatrice Howard

Luke Joseph Quealey
Annie Beatrice Howard
💍 1919/4264

Bachelor
Spinster

Stoker

29
30

H. M. S. Mallow
Wellington

18 months
7 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4720

29 July 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	626
Date of Notice	29 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Luke Joseph Quealey	Annie Beatrice Howard
	💍 1919/4264
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stoker
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	H. M. S. Mallow	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4720
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

627

29 July 1919

Patrick Bernard Comeskey
Gladys Elizabeth Cudby

Patrick Bernard Comeskey
Gladys Elizabeth Cudby
💍 1919/5430

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

33
23

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

2 weeks
23 years

St. Joseph's Church Upper Hutt

4688

29 July 1919

Rev. Leo Daly

No	627
Date of Notice	29 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Bernard Comeskey	Gladys Elizabeth Cudby
	💍 1919/5430
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	2 weeks	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Upper Hutt
Folio	4688
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Leo Daly

628

31 July 1919

Walter Francis Dudson
Evelyn Dorothy Bradey

Walter Francis Dudson
Evelyn Dorothy Bradey
💍 1919/5431

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher

27
26

Johnsonville
Pahautanui

6 months
26 years

St. Joseph's Church Pahautanui

4689

31 July 1919

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	628
Date of Notice	31 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Francis Dudson	Evelyn Dorothy Bradey
	💍 1919/5431
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Pahautanui
Length of Residence	6 months	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Pahautanui
Folio	4689
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

629

31 July 1919

David Smith
Doris Olive Wright

David Smith
Doris Olin Wright
💍 1919/5432

Widower 4/9/1913
Widow 4/1/1918

Baker

51
27

Karori
Northland

19 years
2 years

Presbyterian Manse Pirie Street Wellington

4690

31 July 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	629
Date of Notice	31 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Smith	Doris Olive Wright
BDM Match (94%)	David Smith	Doris Olin Wright
	💍 1919/5432
Condition	Widower 4/9/1913	Widow 4/1/1918
Profession	Baker
Age	51	27
Dwelling Place	Karori	Northland
Length of Residence	19 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Pirie Street Wellington
Folio	4690
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

630

31 July 1919

Oliver Frank Angell
Marjorie Fordyce Leighton

Oliver Frank Angell
Marjorie Fordyce Leighton
💍 1919/5433

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

34
27

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

34 years
11 years

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Wellington

4691

31 July 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	630
Date of Notice	31 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver Frank Angell	Marjorie Fordyce Leighton
	💍 1919/5433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	34 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Wellington
Folio	4691
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

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).