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 1800

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar R. G. Boulton

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

301

17 April 1919

Ernest Samuel French
Nellie Elizabeth Coveny

Ernest Samuel French
Nellie Elizabeth Coveny
💍 1919/9759

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
14 years

St Thomas Church Newtown Wellington

9529

Robert Joseph Coveny Father

17 April 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	301
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Samuel French	Nellie Elizabeth Coveny
	💍 1919/9759
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	9529
Consent	Robert Joseph Coveny Father
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

302

17 April 1919

Reginald Francis Moore
Ruth Olive Butcher

Reginald Francis Moore
Ruth Olive Butcher
💍 1919/2210

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

31
25

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
14 days

Residence of Mr Butcher 13 Patanga Crescent Wellington

1790

17 April 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	302
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Francis Moore	Ruth Olive Butcher
	💍 1919/2210
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Butcher 13 Patanga Crescent Wellington
Folio	1790
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

303

17 April 1919

Gervase Henry Isaac Radford
Grace Evelyn Belfit

Gervac Henry Isaac Radford
Grace Evelyn Belfit
💍 1919/2211

Widower 10/8/1914
Divorced Decree Wellington Absolute 22/6/1918

Storeman

40
35

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

1791

17 April 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	303
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gervase Henry Isaac Radford	Grace Evelyn Belfit
BDM Match (96%)	Gervac Henry Isaac Radford	Grace Evelyn Belfit
	💍 1919/2211
Condition	Widower 10/8/1914	Divorced Decree Wellington Absolute 22/6/1918
Profession	Storeman
Age	40	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1791
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

304

17 April 1919

Richard Francis Beere
Mary Lillian Morrison Ewart

Richard Francis Burke
Mary Lillian Morrison Ewart
💍 1919/2212

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

38
25

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
17 years

The Basilica Hill Street Wellington

1792

17 April 1919

Rev. P. J. Smyth

No	304
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Francis Beere	Mary Lillian Morrison Ewart
BDM Match (93%)	Richard Francis Burke	Mary Lillian Morrison Ewart
	💍 1919/2212
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	38	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	17 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	1792
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth

305

17 April 1919

Rudolph Francis Gustaf Johnson
Ada Georgina Hall

Adolf Francis Gustaf Johnson
Ada Georgina Hall
💍 1919/2213

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

24
19

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
Life

Registrar's Office Wellington

1793

19 April 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	305
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rudolph Francis Gustaf Johnson	Ada Georgina Hall
BDM Match (93%)	Adolf Francis Gustaf Johnson	Ada Georgina Hall
	💍 1919/2213
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1793
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 April 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).