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 1840

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

500

23 June 1919

Arthur Illingworth Grabham
Muriel Nicholls

Arthur Illingworth Grabham
Muriel Nicholls
💍 1919/2195

Widower 18/10/1918
Widow 20/9/1911

Mechanical Engineer

53
26

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
2 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

1975

23 June 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	500
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Illingworth Grabham	Muriel Nicholls
	💍 1919/2195
Condition	Widower 18/10/1918	Widow 20/9/1911
Profession	Mechanical Engineer
Age	53	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1975
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

501

23 June 1919

Frederick Cecil Hubbard
Agnes Cruickshank

Frederick Cecil Hubbard
Agnes Cruickshank
💍 1919/2164

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

31
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

1977

23 June 1919

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	501
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Cecil Hubbard	Agnes Cruickshank
	💍 1919/2164
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	1977
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

502

23 June 1919

James Cranston
Edna May Reid

James Cranston
Edna May Reid
💍 1919/2171

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

23
17

Wellington
Wellington

9 days
9 days

St. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott St. Wellington

1978

William Alexander Cooper Reid Father

23 June 1919

Rev. S. Mahony

No	502
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Cranston	Edna May Reid
	💍 1919/2171
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 days	9 days
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott St. Wellington
Folio	1978
Consent	William Alexander Cooper Reid Father
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony

503

23 June 1919

Herbert Stanley Adams
Helen MacGregor

Herbert Stanley Adams
Helen MacGregor
💍 1919/4930

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

27
24

Wellington
Masterton

3 weeks
24 years

Residence of Mrs. E. MacGregor Pownall St. Masterton

4132

23 June 1919

Rev. G. T. Brown

No	503
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Stanley Adams	Helen MacGregor
	💍 1919/4930
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Masterton
Length of Residence	3 weeks	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. E. MacGregor Pownall St. Masterton
Folio	4132
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. T. Brown

504

24 June 1919

Thomas Henry Whitley
Violet Allen Bodell

Thomas Henry Whitley
Violet Allen Bodell
💍 1919/2172

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
21

Petone
Wellington

16 years
10 years

Methodist Church Island Bay Wellington

1979

24 June 1919

Rev. J. T. Pinfold

No	504
Date of Notice	24 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Whitley	Violet Allen Bodell
	💍 1919/2172
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Island Bay Wellington
Folio	1979
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Pinfold

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).