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 1858

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. A. Boyllon

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

586

17 July 1919

George Samuel Hope Harden
Helen Muriel Anderson

George Samuel Thorpe Harden
Helen Muriel Anderson
💍 1919/5353

Bachelor
Spinster

Lieutenant R.N.V.R.

27
25

Wellington
Willis Street, Wellington

3 days
Life

St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington

4661

17 July 1919

Rev. H. Watson

No	586
Date of Notice	17 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Samuel Hope Harden	Helen Muriel Anderson
BDM Match (94%)	George Samuel Thorpe Harden	Helen Muriel Anderson
	💍 1919/5353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lieutenant R.N.V.R.
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Willis Street, Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	4661
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

587

18 July 1919

Thomas Quinn
Agnes Lynam

Thomas Quinn
Agnes Lynam
💍 1919/5354

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

45
26

Trentham
Wellington

8 years
5 months

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

4662

18 July 1919

Rev. J. Cullen

No	587
Date of Notice	18 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Quinn	Agnes Lynam
	💍 1919/5354
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	45	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	5 months
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	4662
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cullen

588

18 July 1919

Harry Lawson
Moya Kathleen O'Sullivan

Harry Lawson
Moya Kathleen O'Sullivan
💍 1919/5355

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

31
28

Wellington
Wellington

31 years
28 years

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

4663

18 July 1919

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	588
Date of Notice	18 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Lawson	Moya Kathleen O'Sullivan
	💍 1919/5355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	4663
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

589

18 July 1919

Clarence Walker Baillie
Ruby Maude Williams

Clarence Walker Baillee
Ruby Maude Williams
💍 1919/5356

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

21
23

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
1 year

St. Thomas's Church Newtown Wellington

4664

18 July 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	589
Date of Notice	18 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Walker Baillie	Ruby Maude Williams
BDM Match (98%)	Clarence Walker Baillee	Ruby Maude Williams
	💍 1919/5356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Thomas's Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	4664
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

590

18 July 1919

Ernest Annear
Florence Ethel Lean

Ernest Annear
Florence Ethel Lean
💍 1919/4253

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
24

Kilbirnie
Kilbirnie

5 weeks
4 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4710

18 July 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	590
Date of Notice	18 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Annear	Florence Ethel Lean
	💍 1919/4253
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	5 weeks	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4710
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 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).