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 1848

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. G. Danby

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

536

4 July 1919

William Walton Jones
Isabella Leadbetter

William Walton Jones
Isabella Leadbetter
💍 1919/5344

Bachelor
Spinster

Stonemason

33
27

Petone
Petone

10 years
5 years

St. Augustine's Church Petone

4628

4 July 1919

Rev. H. T. Stealey

No	536
Date of Notice	4 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Walton Jones	Isabella Leadbetter
	💍 1919/5344
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stonemason
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	10 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church Petone
Folio	4628
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. T. Stealey

537

4 July 1919

Charles Oliver Melville
Violet Muriel Taylor

Charles Oliver Melville
Violet Muriel Taylor
💍 1919/5345

Widower 24/11/1918
Spinster

Billiard Saloon Proprietor

36
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
7 years

St. Peter's Church Wellington

4629

4 July 1919

Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

No	537
Date of Notice	4 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Oliver Melville	Violet Muriel Taylor
	💍 1919/5345
Condition	Widower 24/11/1918	Spinster
Profession	Billiard Saloon Proprietor
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	4629
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

538

4 July 1919

Harold Vernon Wilton
Ellen Elizabeth Glading

Harold Vernon Wilton
Ellen Elizabeth Glading
💍 1919/5346

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy Farmer

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington

4630

4 July 1919

Rev. T. K. Ewen

No	538
Date of Notice	4 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Vernon Wilton	Ellen Elizabeth Glading
	💍 1919/5346
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy Farmer
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington
Folio	4630
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. K. Ewen

539

5 July 1919

John Carl Feast
Mabel May Smith

John Carl Feast
Mabel May Smith
💍 1919/5347

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
Life

St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington

4631

William Chappell Smith Father

5 July 1919

Rev. H. Watson

No	539
Date of Notice	5 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Carl Feast	Mabel May Smith
	💍 1919/5347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	4631
Consent	William Chappell Smith Father
Date of Certificate	5 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

540

5 July 1919

Maurice Frank Aubrey Archer
Beatrice Elizabeth Pegden

Maurice Frank Aubrey Archer
Beatrice Elizabeth Pegden
💍 1919/6493

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
35

Wellington
Palmerston North

Life
Life

Residence of Mr. W. E. Pegden 200 Park Road Palmerston North

5947

5 July 1919

Rev. A. Doull

No	540
Date of Notice	5 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Frank Aubrey Archer	Beatrice Elizabeth Pegden
	💍 1919/6493
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. E. Pegden 200 Park Road Palmerston North
Folio	5947
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Doull

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).