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 1788

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

241

2 April 1919

Arthur Mills
Dora Colebrook

Arthur Mills
Dora Colebrook
💍 1919/1979

Widower 20 May 1917
Spinster

Inspector

44
38

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

17 years
3 months

Registrars Office Wellington

1734

2 April 1919

R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

No	241
Date of Notice	2 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Mills	Dora Colebrook
	💍 1919/1979
Condition	Widower 20 May 1917	Spinster
Profession	Inspector
Age	44	38
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	17 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	1734
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

242

2 April 1919

Eric Gunner Mentzer
Myra Emily Winstanley

Eric Gunner Mentzer
Myra Emily Winstanley
💍 1919/1980

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

35
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Peters Church Willis St. Wellington

1735

Charles Frederick Winstanley, Father

2 April 1919

Rev. T. F. Taylor

No	242
Date of Notice	2 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Gunner Mentzer	Myra Emily Winstanley
	💍 1919/1980
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	35	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church Willis St. Wellington
Folio	1735
Consent	Charles Frederick Winstanley, Father
Date of Certificate	2 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor

243

2 April 1919

Ernest Edward Hugo Lohman
Margaret Rebecca Mickelson

Ernest Edward Hugo Lohman
Margaret Rebecca Mickelson
💍 1919/1981

Bachelor
Widow 9/5/1917

Mariner

31
47

Wellington
Wellington

6 weeks
16 years

Registrars Office Wellington

1736

2 April 1919

R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

No	243
Date of Notice	2 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edward Hugo Lohman	Margaret Rebecca Mickelson
	💍 1919/1981
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 9/5/1917
Profession	Mariner
Age	31	47
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	16 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	1736
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. G. Poulton, Deputy Registrar

244

3 April 1919

Donald Stuart Milne
Lucy Marian Leighton

Donald Stuart Milne
Lucy Marian Leighton
💍 1919/1982

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

26
25

Wellington
Johnsonville

3 days
Life

St. Andrews Church Wellington

1737

3 April 1919

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	244
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Stuart Milne	Lucy Marian Leighton
	💍 1919/1982
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church Wellington
Folio	1737
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

245

3 April 1919

Thomas Alexander Macdonald
Eva May Reaman

Thomas Alexander Macdonald
Eva May Seaman
💍 1919/1983

Bachelor
Spinster

Lineman

33
33

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
5 years

St. James' Church Wellington

1738

3 April 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	245
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Alexander Macdonald	Eva May Reaman
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Alexander Macdonald	Eva May Seaman
	💍 1919/1983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lineman
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Wellington
Folio	1738
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).