Intentions to Marry, 1905 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840428, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 182

District of Pahiatua Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar William Jesse Reeves

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

29 November 1905

John Thomason Ross
Elsie Gregory

John Thornton Ross
Elsie Gregory
💍 1905/3322

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

29
21

Pahiatua
Pahiatua

4 days
1 year

Residence of J. P. Mackay, Scarborough

05/5821

29 November 1905

Rev. W. Woollass, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	29 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomason Ross	Elsie Gregory
BDM Match (92%)	John Thornton Ross	Elsie Gregory
	💍 1905/3322
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Pahiatua	Pahiatua
Length of Residence	4 days	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of J. P. Mackay, Scarborough
Folio	05/5821
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Woollass, Presbyterian

9 December 1905

Roland Henry Russell
Seagreet Elizabeth Berg

Roland Henry Russell
Seagreet Elizabeth Berg
💍 1905/3330

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Hand
Domestic

22
27

Ormond
Ormond

8 years
18 months

Church of England, Ormond

05/5822

9 December 1905

Rev. J. Blackburne, Church of England

No	27
Date of Notice	9 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roland Henry Russell	Seagreet Elizabeth Berg
	💍 1905/3330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Hand	Domestic
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Ormond	Ormond
Length of Residence	8 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Ormond
Folio	05/5822
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Blackburne, Church of England

23 December 1905

Morton Gladstone Tuck
Georgina Marion Graham Lucan

Morton Gladstone Tuck
Georgina Marion Graham Smeaton
💍 1905/3341

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Hand
Domestic

25
22

Pahiatua
Pahiatua

3 days
18 years

Presbyterian Church, Pahiatua

05/5823

23 December 1905

Rev. James W. Caw, Presbyterian

No	28
Date of Notice	23 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Morton Gladstone Tuck	Georgina Marion Graham Lucan
BDM Match (92%)	Morton Gladstone Tuck	Georgina Marion Graham Smeaton
	💍 1905/3341
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Hand	Domestic
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Pahiatua	Pahiatua
Length of Residence	3 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Pahiatua
Folio	05/5823
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. James W. Caw, Presbyterian

23 December 1905

Alfred Mynott Berry
Mary Alicia McBride

Alfred Mynot Berry
Mary Alicia McBride
💍 1905/3346

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Cook

25
26

Napier
Pahiatua

9 months
4 years

Roman Catholic Church at Pahiatua

05/5824

23 December 1905

Rev. Thos. W. Venna, Roman Catholic

No	29
Date of Notice	23 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Mynott Berry	Mary Alicia McBride
BDM Match (97%)	Alfred Mynot Berry	Mary Alicia McBride
	💍 1905/3346
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Cook
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Pahiatua
Length of Residence	9 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Pahiatua
Folio	05/5824
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. W. Venna, Roman Catholic

31 December 1905

John W. Vay
Mary Ann Murphy

John McKay
Mary Ann Murphy
💍 1906/1927

John Palmer
Mary Ellen Murphy
💍 1905/5175

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic and School Teacher

23
26

Pahiatua
Ballance

4 days
3 weeks at Pahiatua

Roman Catholic Church at Pahiatua

06/521

31 December 1905

Rev. Thomas W. Kuma, Roman Catholic

No	30
Date of Notice	31 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John W. Vay	Mary Ann Murphy
BDM Match (82%)	John McKay	Mary Ann Murphy
	💍 1906/1927
BDM Match (61%)	John Palmer	Mary Ellen Murphy
	💍 1905/5175
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic and School Teacher
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Pahiatua	Ballance
Length of Residence	4 days	3 weeks at Pahiatua
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Pahiatua
Folio	06/521
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas W. Kuma, Roman Catholic

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).