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 1522

District of Masterton Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar J. Miller

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

22 July 1919

Frederick Waller Peryer
Mary Rennie

Frank Walter Peryer
Mary Rennie
💍 1919/6452

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Housemaid

24
21

Masterton
Masterton

1 week
6 weeks

Knox Presbyterian Church at Masterton

5898

24 July 1919

Rev. G. T. Brown, Presbyterian

No	41
Date of Notice	22 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Waller Peryer	Mary Rennie
BDM Match (85%)	Frank Walter Peryer	Mary Rennie
	💍 1919/6452
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Housemaid
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	1 week	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church at Masterton
Folio	5898
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. T. Brown, Presbyterian

24 July 1919

Daniel James Rogers
Dorothy Ellen Were

Daniel James Rogers
Dorothy Ellen Were
💍 1919/6463

Bachelor
Spinster

Member of N.Z. Expeditionary Force
Home Duties

30
24

Masterton
Masterton

12 months

St. Patrick's Church at Masterton

5899

24 July 1919

Rev. Monsignor J. McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	42
Date of Notice	24 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel James Rogers	Dorothy Ellen Were
	💍 1919/6463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Member of N.Z. Expeditionary Force	Home Duties
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence		12 months
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church at Masterton
Folio	5899
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Monsignor J. McKenna, Roman Catholic

28 July 1919

Henry Wallace Dale
Alice Irene Mary Buick

Henry Wallace Dale
Alice Irene Mary Buick
💍 1919/6470

Bachelor
Spinster

Greaser
Domestic Duties

20
20

Masterton
Masterton

7 years
20 years

St. Matthew's Church at Masterton

5900

Henry Dale, Alexander Buick

28 July 1919

Rev. John Walker, Church of England

No	43
Date of Notice	28 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Wallace Dale	Alice Irene Mary Buick
	💍 1919/6470
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Greaser	Domestic Duties
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	7 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church at Masterton
Folio	5900
Consent	Henry Dale, Alexander Buick
Date of Certificate	28 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Walker, Church of England

28 July 1919

George Matthew Spencer
Olive Dagg

George Matthew Spencer
Olive Dagg
💍 1919/6471

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Schoolteacher

39
29

Masterton
Masterton

3 days
5 days

St. Matthew's Church of England at Masterton

5901

28 July 1919

Rev. John Walker, Church of England

No	44
Date of Notice	28 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Matthew Spencer	Olive Dagg
	💍 1919/6471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Schoolteacher
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	3 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church of England at Masterton
Folio	5901
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Walker, Church of England

30 July 1919

Henry Kawana Witinitara
Taringa Mura Tamaohungia

Henry Kawana Witinitara
Taringa Mura Tamaohungia
💍 1919/6472

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Home Duties

20
23

Te Ore Ore
Te Ore Ore

20 years
1 week

Registrar's Office at Masterton

5902

Kawana Witinitara

30 July 1919

J. Miller, Registrar

No	45
Date of Notice	30 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Kawana Witinitara	Taringa Mura Tamaohungia
	💍 1919/6472
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Home Duties
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Te Ore Ore	Te Ore Ore
Length of Residence	20 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office at Masterton
Folio	5902
Consent	Kawana Witinitara
Date of Certificate	30 July 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Miller, 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).