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 416

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

488

19 July 1905

Walter Henry Young
Elsie Maud Wilton

Walter Henry Young
Elsie Maud Wilton
💍 1905/1910

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer's Assistant

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
23 years

Residence of A. E. Wilton, Britomart St.

05/4356

19 July 1905

Rev. G. Bond

No	488
Date of Notice	19 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Henry Young	Elsie Maud Wilton
	💍 1905/1910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer's Assistant
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of A. E. Wilton, Britomart St.
Folio	05/4356
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond

489

21 July 1905

Charles Hamilton West
Emma Jorgensen

Charles Hamilton West
Emma Jorgensen
💍 1905/1914

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Manager

37
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
12 months

Primitive Methodist Manse, Sydney Street, Wellington

05/4360

21 July 1905

Rev. G. H. Mann

No	489
Date of Notice	21 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hamilton West	Emma Jorgensen
	💍 1905/1914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Manager
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	12 months
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Manse, Sydney Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4360
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Mann

490

21 July 1905

Henry Felix Wilmshurst
Caroline Wilmshurst

Henry Flux
Caroline Wilmshurst
💍 1905/2743

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

27
20

Petone
Petone

27 years
8 years

Residence of Mr. Wilmshurst, Petone

05/5796

William Edwin Wilmshurst

21 July 1905

Rev. A. Thomson

No	490
Date of Notice	21 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Felix Wilmshurst	Caroline Wilmshurst
BDM Match (70%)	Henry Flux	Caroline Wilmshurst
	💍 1905/2743
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	27 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Wilmshurst, Petone
Folio	05/5796
Consent	William Edwin Wilmshurst
Date of Certificate	21 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Thomson

491

21 July 1905

Arthur Crosby
Isabel Watson

Arthur Crosby
Isabel Watson
💍 1905/1864

Bachelor
Spinster

Physician & Surgeon
Medical Practitioner

36
31

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
2 1/2 years

St. John's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/4306

21 July 1905

Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

No	491
Date of Notice	21 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Crosby	Isabel Watson
	💍 1905/1864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Physician & Surgeon	Medical Practitioner
Age	36	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4306
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

492

21 July 1905

Arthur Pritchard Davies
Matilda Rebecca Turner

Arthur Richard Davies
Matilda Rebecca Turner
💍 1905/1903

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. Turner, 120 Cuba Street, Wellington

05/4372

William Turner, Father

21 July 1905

Mr. Kenneth McLeod

No	492
Date of Notice	21 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Pritchard Davies	Matilda Rebecca Turner
BDM Match (94%)	Arthur Richard Davies	Matilda Rebecca Turner
	💍 1905/1903
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Turner, 120 Cuba Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4372
Consent	William Turner, Father
Date of Certificate	21 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Mr. Kenneth McLeod

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).