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 361

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

221

28 March 1905

George Peach
Maud Adams

George Leach
Maud Adams
💍 1905/5897

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
Life

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/674

28 March 1905

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	221
Date of Notice	28 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Peach	Maud Adams
BDM Match (96%)	George Leach	Maud Adams
	💍 1905/5897
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/674
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1905
Officiating Minister	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

222

28 March 1905

James Alfred Chandler
Edith May Coleman

James Alfred Chandler
Edith May Coleman
💍 1905/6486

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

19 years
21 months

Residence of Mrs. M. Chandler, 8 Binham Street, Wellington

05/1570

Thomas Coleman, father

28 March 1905

Rev. J. R. Elliott

No	222
Date of Notice	28 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alfred Chandler	Edith May Coleman
	💍 1905/6486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	21 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. M. Chandler, 8 Binham Street, Wellington
Folio	05/1570
Consent	Thomas Coleman, father
Date of Certificate	28 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Elliott

223

28 March 1905

Thomas John Aird Black
Margaret Ellen Donaldson

Thomas John Aird Black
Margaret Ellen Donaldson
💍 1905/5898

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse Trainer

27
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/675

William Donaldson, father

28 March 1905

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	223
Date of Notice	28 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas John Aird Black	Margaret Ellen Donaldson
	💍 1905/5898
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse Trainer
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/675
Consent	William Donaldson, father
Date of Certificate	28 March 1905
Officiating Minister	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

224

28 March 1905

Gilbert Graham Hodgkins
Evaline Kathleen Letitia Broad

Gilbert Graham Hodgkins
Eveline Kathleen Letitia Broad
💍 1905/5356

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
25

Wellington
Dunedin

4 years
25 years

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

05/2461

28 March 1905

Rev. J. S. North

No	224
Date of Notice	28 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Graham Hodgkins	Evaline Kathleen Letitia Broad
BDM Match (98%)	Gilbert Graham Hodgkins	Eveline Kathleen Letitia Broad
	💍 1905/5356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	05/2461
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. S. North

225

29 March 1905

Arthur Baker
Mary Ann King Hunter

Arthur Baker
Mary Ann King Hunter
💍 1905/377

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

St. John's Church Manse, Woolcombe Street, Wellington

05/2376

29 March 1905

Rev. J. Gibb, W.M.

No	225
Date of Notice	29 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Baker	Mary Ann King Hunter
	💍 1905/377
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Manse, Woolcombe Street, Wellington
Folio	05/2376
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, W.M.

226

30 March 1905

Harold Pearce
Sophia Shatford

Harold Pearce
Sophia Stratford
💍 1905/5899

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer

37
36

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
2 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/676

30 March 1905

F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

No	226
Date of Notice	30 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Pearce	Sophia Shatford
BDM Match (94%)	Harold Pearce	Sophia Stratford
	💍 1905/5899
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	2 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/676
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1905
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 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).