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 1750

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

29 January 1919

Frederick Walter James Talbot
Louisa Emily Butler

Frederick Walter James Talbut
Louisa Emily Butler
💍 1919/3999

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

39
30

Petone
Wellington

20 years
10 years

St. Mark's Church Wellington

161

29 January 1919

C. F. Askew

No	66
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter James Talbot	Louisa Emily Butler
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick Walter James Talbut	Louisa Emily Butler
	💍 1919/3999
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	39	30
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	161
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	C. F. Askew

29 January 1919

Denis Dennis Booberis
Evelyn Agnes Smith

Dennis Boolieris
Evelyn Agnes Smith
💍 1919/4000

Bachelor
Spinster

Restaurant Proprietor

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
10 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

162

29 January 1919

Deputy Registrar

No	67
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Dennis Booberis	Evelyn Agnes Smith
BDM Match (81%)	Dennis Boolieris	Evelyn Agnes Smith
	💍 1919/4000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Restaurant Proprietor
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	162
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

29 January 1919

William Henry Cunningham
Grace Winifred Luke

William Henry Cunningham
Grace Winifred Luke
💍 1919/4001

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

35
32

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
32 years

Residence of Mr. C. M. Luke, 127 Coromandel Street, Wellington

163

29 January 1919

J. Dawson

No	68
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Cunningham	Grace Winifred Luke
	💍 1919/4001
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	35	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	32 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. C. M. Luke, 127 Coromandel Street, Wellington
Folio	163
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Dawson

30 January 1919

Alfred Thomas West
Lilian Frances Smith

Alfred Thomas West
Lilian Frances Smith
💍 1919/4002

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
5 weeks

All Saints Church Kilbirnie

164

30 January 1919

J. H. Sykes

No	69
Date of Notice	30 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Thomas West	Lilian Frances Smith
	💍 1919/4002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	5 weeks
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie
Folio	164
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1919
Officiating Minister	J. H. Sykes

31 January 1919

William O'Shea
Eleanor Tilbury

William O'Shea
Eleanor Tilbury
💍 1919/4003

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

52
41

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Mary of the Angels Presbytery, Boulcott St., Wellington

165

31 January 1919

R. J. Hoare

No	70
Date of Notice	31 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William O'Shea	Eleanor Tilbury
	💍 1919/4003
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	52	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Presbytery, Boulcott St., Wellington
Folio	165
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. J. Hoare

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).