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 1568

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar C. E. Shortt

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

16 January 1919

Edward Bloomfield McGill
Diana Fawcett Pillans

Edward Bloomfield McGill
Diana Fawcett Pillans
💍 1919/1516

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

19
23

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

17 years
1 year

Residence of Mr H. Pillans 26 Batt Street Palmerston North

1269

James McGill Father

16 January 1919

Rev Alexander Grant Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	16 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Bloomfield McGill	Diana Fawcett Pillans
	💍 1919/1516
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	19	23
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	17 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr H. Pillans 26 Batt Street Palmerston North
Folio	1269
Consent	James McGill Father
Date of Certificate	16 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Alexander Grant Presbyterian

27 January 1919

Arthur Robert Bryant
Beatrice Mary Abraham

Arthur Robert Bryant
Beatrice Mary Abraham
💍 1919/1518

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Schoolteacher

31
30

Tiritea
Palmerston North

31 years
3 days

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

1270

27 January 1919

Rev H.G. Blackburne Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	27 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Robert Bryant	Beatrice Mary Abraham
	💍 1919/1518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Schoolteacher
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Tiritea	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	31 years	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	1270
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev H.G. Blackburne Anglican

28 January 1919

Edwin Maycock
Anne Marie Nielsen

Edwin Maycock
Anne Marie Nielsen
💍 1919/1519

Bachelor
Not seen or or heard of husband for the last 11 years

Farmer
Domestic

51
52

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

2 weeks
2 weeks

Registrars Office Palmerston North

1271

28 January 1919

C.E. Shortt Registrar

No	8
Date of Notice	28 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Maycock	Anne Marie Nielsen
	💍 1919/1519
Condition	Bachelor	Not seen or or heard of husband for the last 11 years
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	51	52
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Palmerston North
Folio	1271
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1919
Officiating Minister	C.E. Shortt Registrar

01 February 1919

James Anderson
Olive Gilling

James Anderson
Olive Gilling
💍 1919/1520

Bachelor
Spinster

Assembler
Domestic

23
21

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 months
1 month

Registrars Office Palmerston North

1272

01 February 1919

C.E. Shortt Registrar

No	9
Date of Notice	01 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Anderson	Olive Gilling
	💍 1919/1520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assembler	Domestic
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Palmerston North
Folio	1272
Consent
Date of Certificate	01 February 1919
Officiating Minister	C.E. Shortt Registrar

01 February 1919

Charles Thomas Richardson
Alice Woodley

Charles Thomas Richardson
Alice Woodley
💍 1919/1521

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

20
20

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

20 years
14 years

Cuba Street Methodist Church Palmerston North

1273

Charles Frederick Richardson, Father; Charles Woodley, Father

01 February 1919

Rev A. Ashcroft Methodist

No	10
Date of Notice	01 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Thomas Richardson	Alice Woodley
	💍 1919/1521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	20 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church Palmerston North
Folio	1273
Consent	Charles Frederick Richardson, Father; Charles Woodley, Father
Date of Certificate	01 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Ashcroft Methodist

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).