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 1846

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

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

526

1 July 1919

Richard George Goode
Violet Nona Ward Savage

Richard George Goode
Violet Nona Ward Savage
💍 1919/5310

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

24
20

Wellington
Kilbirnie

2 years
3 years

All Saints Church, Kilbirnie

4618

14 July 1919

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	526
Date of Notice	1 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard George Goode	Violet Nona Ward Savage
	💍 1919/5310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	4618
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

527

1 July 1919

Frank Bainard Howard Chappell
Olive Miriam Jane Johnson

Frank Bainard Howard Chappell
Olive Miriam Jane Johnson
💍 1919/5312

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

38
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

St. Thomas's Church, Newtown

4619

1 July 1919

Rev. C. W. Solomon

No	527
Date of Notice	1 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Bainard Howard Chappell	Olive Miriam Jane Johnson
	💍 1919/5312
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas's Church, Newtown
Folio	4619
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. W. Solomon

528

2 July 1919

George William McBaul
Mabel Louise Russell

George William McCaul
Mabel Louise Russell
💍 1919/5313

Bachelor
Divorcee decree absolute 19/12/1918

Barrister Solicitor

47
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 years

Residence of Miss Wallace, 5 Tasman Street, Wellington

4620

2 July 1919

Rev. J. Gibb

No	528
Date of Notice	2 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William McBaul	Mabel Louise Russell
BDM Match (98%)	George William McCaul	Mabel Louise Russell
	💍 1919/5313
Condition	Bachelor	Divorcee decree absolute 19/12/1918
Profession	Barrister Solicitor
Age	47	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Wallace, 5 Tasman Street, Wellington
Folio	4620
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

529

2 July 1919

Thomas Benjamin Proebstel
Margaret Ellen Leadbetter

Thomas Benjamin Proebstel
Margaret Ellen Leadbetter
💍 1919/5314

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

28
25

Petone
Petone

19 years
6 years

St. Augustine's Church, Petone

4621

2 July 1919

Rev. H. J. Stealey

No	529
Date of Notice	2 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Benjamin Proebstel	Margaret Ellen Leadbetter
	💍 1919/5314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	19 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	4621
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Stealey

530

3 July 1919

Douglas Blatchford
Annie Foreman

Douglas Blatchford
Annie Foreman
💍 1919/5315

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
21

Wellington
Eastbourne

3 days
5 months

Church of England, Eastbourne

4622

3 July 1919

Rev. William Stent

No	530
Date of Notice	3 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Blatchford	Annie Foreman
	💍 1919/5315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Eastbourne
Length of Residence	3 days	5 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Eastbourne
Folio	4622
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Stent

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).