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 322

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodgkins

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

16 January 1905

Harold William Brown
Eva Lockie

Harold William Brown
Eva Lockie
💍 1905/6485

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
Life

St. Johns Church, Willis Street

05/1569

16 January 1905

Rev Jas. Patterson

No	31
Date of Notice	16 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold William Brown	Eva Lockie
	💍 1905/6485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Willis Street
Folio	05/1569
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas. Patterson

16 January 1905

George Lionel Stroud
May Frances Jubilee Trask

George Lionel Stroud
Mary Frances Jubilee Trask
💍 1905/5952

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

26
19

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
9 years

Residence of Mr. C. Dunbar, 15 Martin Street

05/807

Florence Dunbar, Mother

16 January 1905

Rev J. Bond

No	32
Date of Notice	16 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lionel Stroud	May Frances Jubilee Trask
BDM Match (98%)	George Lionel Stroud	Mary Frances Jubilee Trask
	💍 1905/5952
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. C. Dunbar, 15 Martin Street
Folio	05/807
Consent	Florence Dunbar, Mother
Date of Certificate	16 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Bond

16 January 1905

Joseph Cyril Proffitt
Elizabeth Eliza Nelson

Joseph Cyril Proffitt
Elizabeth Eliza Nelson
💍 1905/4883

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
Life

Residence of Mr. M. McGillivray, Epsom Street

05/8218

16 January 1905

Rev T. J. Bull

No	33
Date of Notice	16 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Cyril Proffitt	Elizabeth Eliza Nelson
	💍 1905/4883
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. M. McGillivray, Epsom Street
Folio	05/8218
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev T. J. Bull

17 January 1905

Henry Hawcomb Kearse
Ettie Kearse

Henry Hurcomb
Ettie Kearse
💍 1905/4877

Bachelor
Spinster

Fishmonger

23
20

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
7 months

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

05/821

Thomas Fowler Kearse, father

17 January 1905

Rev C. Dallaston

No	34
Date of Notice	17 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Hawcomb Kearse	Ettie Kearse
BDM Match (78%)	Henry Hurcomb	Ettie Kearse
	💍 1905/4877
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fishmonger
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	05/821
Consent	Thomas Fowler Kearse, father
Date of Certificate	17 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev C. Dallaston

18 January 1905

David Percy Jones Dixon
Charlotte Alicia Gardener

David Percy Jones Dixon
Charlotte Alicia Gardener
💍 1905/5857

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

38
42

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/7629

18 January 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	18 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Percy Jones Dixon	Charlotte Alicia Gardener
	💍 1905/5857
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	38	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/7629
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy 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 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).