Intentions to Marry, 1904 North Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840425, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, October 13 2025.

1904 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 1164

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1904 Registrar Frederick William 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

25 January 1904

Albert Edward Dear
Rose Mary Fook

Albert Edward Dear
Rose Mary Foote
💍 1904/3826

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer
Machinist

27
25

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
17 years

St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

04/834

25 January 1904

Rev. A. B. Moloney

No	68
Date of Notice	25 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Dear	Rose Mary Fook
BDM Match (93%)	Albert Edward Dear	Rose Mary Foote
	💍 1904/3826
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer	Machinist
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	04/834
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Moloney

26 January 1904

Walter Joseph Johnson
Ann Loveday Jeffery

Walter Joseph Johnson
Ann Loveday Jeffery
💍 1904/3350

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyor

26
29

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
13 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

04/788

26 January 1904

Rev. J. K. Sellitt

No	69
Date of Notice	26 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Joseph Johnson	Ann Loveday Jeffery
	💍 1904/3350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	04/788
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Sellitt

26 January 1904

George Percy Gooday
Katherine Johnston

George Percy Gooday
Katherine Johnstone
💍 1904/3333

Bachelor
Spinster

Gas Fitter

31
25

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 years

St. James Church, South Wellington

04/795

26 January 1904

Rev. Wm. Shiner

No	70
Date of Notice	26 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Percy Gooday	Katherine Johnston
BDM Match (97%)	George Percy Gooday	Katherine Johnstone
	💍 1904/3333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gas Fitter
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, South Wellington
Folio	04/795
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Shiner

26 January 1904

William Alfred James Smart
Mary Louisa Johnson

William Alfred James Smart
Mary Louisa Johnson
💍 1904/7046

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

23
19

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

04/686

Eliza Johnson, Mother

26 January 1904

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	71
Date of Notice	26 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alfred James Smart	Mary Louisa Johnson
	💍 1904/7046
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	04/686
Consent	Eliza Johnson, Mother
Date of Certificate	26 January 1904
Officiating Minister	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

26 January 1904

William Watson Mainwaring
Helen Martha Mainwaring

William Watson
Helen Martha Mainwaring
💍 1904/3289

Bachelor
Spinster

Piano Salesman
Dressmaker

32
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 weeks

Residence of W. C. S. Mainwaring, Berhampore, Wellington

04/856

26 January 1904

Rev. G. Bond

No	72
Date of Notice	26 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Watson Mainwaring	Helen Martha Mainwaring
BDM Match (78%)	William Watson	Helen Martha Mainwaring
	💍 1904/3289
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Piano Salesman	Dressmaker
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of W. C. S. Mainwaring, Berhampore, Wellington
Folio	04/856
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).