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 408

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1905 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodghins

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

449

1 July 1905

Kenneth Scott Gandy
Ethel Harriett Stuart

Kenneth Scott Gandy
Ethel Harriett Stuart
💍 1905/1643

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
20 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/4201

Annie Stuart, Mother

1 July 1905

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	449
Date of Notice	1 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Scott Gandy	Ethel Harriett Stuart
	💍 1905/1643
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4201
Consent	Annie Stuart, Mother
Date of Certificate	1 July 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

450

1 July 1905

Joseph Henry Moss
Isabella McArthur

Joseph Henry Moss
Isabella McArthur
💍 1905/2095

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

32
29

Petone
Petone

5 years
12 years

St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

05/4324

1 July 1905

Rev. F. G. Maples

No	450
Date of Notice	1 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Henry Moss	Isabella McArthur
	💍 1905/2095
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	5 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4324
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Maples

451

1 July 1905

James Denniston Giles
Louisa Annie Giles

James Denniston
Louisa Annie Giles
💍 1905/1694

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
23 years

St. James Church, Wellington South

05/4277

1 July 1905

Rev. W. Shiners

No	451
Date of Notice	1 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Denniston Giles	Louisa Annie Giles
BDM Match (86%)	James Denniston	Louisa Annie Giles
	💍 1905/1694
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/4277
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shiners

452

3 July 1905

James Francis Taylor
Angel Anne Fuller

James Francis Taylor
Angel Anne Fuller
💍 1905/2096

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
5 years

St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

05/4325

3 July 1905

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	452
Date of Notice	3 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Francis Taylor	Angel Anne Fuller
	💍 1905/2096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4325
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

453

3 July 1905

James Delaney Carrig
Mary Ellen Carrig

James Delaney
Mary Ellen Caring
💍 1905/2097

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
14 years

St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

05/4326

3 July 1905

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	453
Date of Notice	3 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Delaney Carrig	Mary Ellen Carrig
BDM Match (77%)	James Delaney	Mary Ellen Caring
	💍 1905/2097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4326
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

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).