Intentions to Marry, 1903 North Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840423, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, October 10 2025

1903 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 132

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1903 Registrar M. Mansfield

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

20 January 1903

Charles Salvatore Cimino
Mabel Savieri

Salvatori Cimino
Mabel Savieri
💍 1903/1532

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
21 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington

03/715

20 January 1903

Rev W. J. Lewis

No	41
Date of Notice	20 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Salvatore Cimino	Mabel Savieri
BDM Match (81%)	Salvatori Cimino	Mabel Savieri
	💍 1903/1532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	03/715
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev W. J. Lewis

21 January 1903

Thomas Walter William Smithson
Alice Edith Clarke

Thomas Walter William Smithson
Alice Edith Clarke
💍 1903/1524

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

22
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
23 years

Residence of Mr E. Clarke, 38 Rolleston St, Wellington

03/730

21 January 1903

Rev W. C. Oliver

No	42
Date of Notice	21 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Walter William Smithson	Alice Edith Clarke
	💍 1903/1524
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr E. Clarke, 38 Rolleston St, Wellington
Folio	03/730
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev W. C. Oliver

21 January 1903

Joseph Donnelly
Margaret Ellen Wakefield

Joseph Donnelly
Margaret Ellen Wakefield
💍 1903/855

Bachelor
Spinster

Nurseryman
Dressmaker

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
2 weeks

St Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

03/677

21 January 1903

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	43
Date of Notice	21 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Donnelly	Margaret Ellen Wakefield
	💍 1903/855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Nurseryman	Dressmaker
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	03/677
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

21 January 1903

Henry Beckingsale
Annie Beavis

Henry Beckingsale
Annie Beavis
💍 1903/1562

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
26 years

Baptist Church, Brooklyn

03/746

21 January 1903

Rev W. Lamb

No	44
Date of Notice	21 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Beckingsale	Annie Beavis
	💍 1903/1562
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Brooklyn
Folio	03/746
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Lamb

21 January 1903

John Haynes
Mary Maria Colson

John Haynes
Mary Maria Colson
💍 1903/782

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

32
34

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
20 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

03/617

21 January 1903

G. G. Hopkins, The Deputy Registrar

No	45
Date of Notice	21 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Haynes	Mary Maria Colson
	💍 1903/782
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	03/617
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1903
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hopkins, The Deputy Registrar

23 January 1903

John Hicks Palmer
Louisa Margaret Green

John Hicks Palmer
Louisa Margaret Green
💍 1903/1563

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
21 years

Church of Christ, Dixon St, Wellington

03/747

23 January 1903

Mr A. J. Turner

No	46
Date of Notice	23 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hicks Palmer	Louisa Margaret Green
	💍 1903/1563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Dixon St, Wellington
Folio	03/747
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Mr A. J. Turner

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 1903. 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).