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 350

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

171

7 March 1905

Gilbert Frederick Johnstone
Louisa Henwood

Gilbert Frederick Johnstone
Louisa Henwood
💍 1905/140

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

20
20

Lower Hutt
Petone

19 years
7 years

Registrars Office

05/760

Mary Emma Johnstone Mother, James Henwood Father

7 March 1905

G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

No	171
Date of Notice	7 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Frederick Johnstone	Louisa Henwood
	💍 1905/140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	19 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office
Folio	05/760
Consent	Mary Emma Johnstone Mother, James Henwood Father
Date of Certificate	7 March 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

172

8 March 1905

John Silvester Lepenshi
Fannie Tyree

John Silvester Lepenski
Fannie Tyree
💍 1905/6017

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

32
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Anne's Church

05/856

8 March 1905

Rev J. Ainsworth

No	172
Date of Notice	8 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Silvester Lepenshi	Fannie Tyree
BDM Match (98%)	John Silvester Lepenski	Fannie Tyree
	💍 1905/6017
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church
Folio	05/856
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Ainsworth

173

9 March 1905

John Aldred Hayward
Elizabeth Florence Keeble

John Aldred Hayward
Elizabeth Florence Keeble
💍 1905/5048

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Mariner

36
30

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
2 weeks

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Mulgrave Street Wellington

05/1278

9 March 1905

Rev T. H. Sprott

No	173
Date of Notice	9 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Aldred Hayward	Elizabeth Florence Keeble
	💍 1905/5048
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	36	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Mulgrave Street Wellington
Folio	05/1278
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev T. H. Sprott

174

9 March 1905

Ernest Baind
Margaret O'Connor

Ernest Baird
Margaret O'Connor
💍 1905/141

Thomas Hand
Margaret OConnor
💍 1905/4474

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
4 years

Registrars Office Wellington

05/7661

9 March 1905

G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

No	174
Date of Notice	9 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Baind	Margaret O'Connor
BDM Match (96%)	Ernest Baird	Margaret O'Connor
	💍 1905/141
BDM Match (64%)	Thomas Hand	Margaret OConnor
	💍 1905/4474
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	05/7661
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

175

9 March 1905

William Fisher
Elizabeth Forsyth

William Fisher
Elizabeth Forsyth
💍 1905/4880

Widower
Widow

Librarian

67
48

Wellington
Wellington

13 days
7 months

Residence of W. Fisher N°1 Scarbowngh Terrace Wellington

05/7825

9 March 1905

Rev C. Dallaston

No	175
Date of Notice	9 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Fisher	Elizabeth Forsyth
	💍 1905/4880
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Librarian
Age	67	48
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Residence of W. Fisher N°1 Scarbowngh Terrace Wellington
Folio	05/7825
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev C. Dallaston

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).