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 1161

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1904 Registrar F. W. 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

19 January 1904

Norton Smith
Edith Jolley

Norton Buist Smith
Edith Tolley
💍 1904/3764

Bachelor
Spinster

Tinsmith

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
20 years

St Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington

04/744

19 January 1904

Rev G. P. Davys

No	51
Date of Notice	19 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norton Smith	Edith Jolley
BDM Match (79%)	Norton Buist Smith	Edith Tolley
	💍 1904/3764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tinsmith
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	04/744
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev G. P. Davys

19 January 1904

James McGrath
Lavina Claribel Robinson

James McGrath
Lavina Claribel Rolinson
💍 1904/7041

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

10 days
6 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

04/682

William Robinson, Father

19 January 1904

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	52
Date of Notice	19 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McGrath	Lavina Claribel Robinson
BDM Match (98%)	James McGrath	Lavina Claribel Rolinson
	💍 1904/7041
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	04/682
Consent	William Robinson, Father
Date of Certificate	19 January 1904
Officiating Minister	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

19 January 1904

Arthur James Inglesby
Edith Ellen Rosina Atkinson

Arthur James Inglisly
Edith Ellen Rosina Atkinson
💍 1904/3765

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler

29
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
Life

St Peters Church, Wellington

04/745

Catherine Clara Porter, Mother

19 January 1904

Rev G. P. Davys

No	53
Date of Notice	19 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Inglesby	Edith Ellen Rosina Atkinson
BDM Match (95%)	Arthur James Inglisly	Edith Ellen Rosina Atkinson
	💍 1904/3765
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	Life
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	04/745
Consent	Catherine Clara Porter, Mother
Date of Certificate	19 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev G. P. Davys

19 January 1904

William Dawson Duguid
Annie Campbell Henderson

William Dawson Duguid
Annie Campbell Henderson
💍 1904/3347

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

32
32

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
12 years

Residence No 238, Willis Street, Wellington

04/785

19 January 1904

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	54
Date of Notice	19 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Dawson Duguid	Annie Campbell Henderson
	💍 1904/3347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence No 238, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	04/785
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

19 January 1904

Walter Andrew Forster Hadley
Ethel Dinah McKenzie

Walter Andrew Forster Hadley
Ethel Sirah McKenzie
💍 1904/7042

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Dressmaker

22
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
8 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

04/683

19 January 1904

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	55
Date of Notice	19 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Andrew Forster Hadley	Ethel Dinah McKenzie
BDM Match (95%)	Walter Andrew Forster Hadley	Ethel Sirah McKenzie
	💍 1904/7042
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Dressmaker
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	04/683
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1904
Officiating Minister	F. W. Mansfield, 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).