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 1762

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar R. G. Coullon

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

121

20 February 1919

Frederick Stewart
Catherine Chirnside

Frederick Stewart
Catherine Cluruside
💍 1919/417

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter & joiner

27
29

Brooklyn
Kilbirnie

Life
Life

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

216

20 February 1919

Rev. J. Paterson

No	121
Date of Notice	20 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Stewart	Catherine Chirnside
BDM Match (92%)	Frederick Stewart	Catherine Cluruside
	💍 1919/417
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter & joiner
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	216
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

122

21 February 1919

Selbourne Samuel Austin
Rachel Rebecca Ferguson

Selbourne Samuel Austin
Rachel Rebecca Ferguson
💍 1919/418

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

29
22

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
22 years

St. James's Church, Wellington

217

21 February 1919

Rev. W. Shirer

No	122
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Selbourne Samuel Austin	Rachel Rebecca Ferguson
	💍 1919/418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. James's Church, Wellington
Folio	217
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

123

21 February 1919

Clarence Edward Good
Alice Gwendoline Futter

Clarence Edward Good
Alice Gwendoline Fulter
💍 1919/419

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
20 years

St. Thomas's Church, Newtown

218

Hathaway Valentine Futter, father

21 February 1919

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	123
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Edward Good	Alice Gwendoline Futter
BDM Match (98%)	Clarence Edward Good	Alice Gwendoline Fulter
	💍 1919/419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas's Church, Newtown
Folio	218
Consent	Hathaway Valentine Futter, father
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

124

21 February 1919

Neil Doherty
Dorothy Fryer

Neil Doherty
Dorothy Fryer
💍 1919/420

Bachelor
Spinster

Crane Driver

30
23

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

3 years
3 years

St. Peter or St. Paul's Church, Lower Hutt

219

21 February 1919

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	124
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neil Doherty	Dorothy Fryer
	💍 1919/420
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Crane Driver
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter or St. Paul's Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	219
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

125

21 February 1919

William Matthew Hickey
Dora Lillian Morris

William Matthew Hickey
Dora Lilian Morris
💍 1919/422

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman

22
28

Petone
Petone

18 years
5 years

St. Augustines Church, Petone

220

21 February 1919

Rev. H. T. Stealey

No	125
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Matthew Hickey	Dora Lillian Morris
BDM Match (97%)	William Matthew Hickey	Dora Lilian Morris
	💍 1919/422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman
Age	22	28
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	18 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church, Petone
Folio	220
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. T. Stealey

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).