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 426

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

538

11 August 1905

Denis Mahoney
Mary Dennehy

Denis Mahony
Mary Dennehy
💍 1905/1889

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

32
20

Wellington
Hutt

6 years
4 years

Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

05/4343

William Dennehy, Father

12 August 1905

Rev. J. J. Land

No	538
Date of Notice	11 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Mahoney	Mary Dennehy
BDM Match (96%)	Denis Mahony	Mary Dennehy
	💍 1905/1889
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	32	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Hutt
Length of Residence	6 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	05/4343
Consent	William Dennehy, Father
Date of Certificate	12 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Land

539

12 August 1905

Eceldonne Frederick Hiscocks
Eva Isabel Palmer

Eceldowne Frederick Hiscocks
Eva Isabel Palmer
💍 1905/2078

Bachelor
Spinster

Artist

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
2 months

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/4256

12 August 1905

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	539
Date of Notice	12 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eceldonne Frederick Hiscocks	Eva Isabel Palmer
BDM Match (98%)	Eceldowne Frederick Hiscocks	Eva Isabel Palmer
	💍 1905/2078
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artist
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4256
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

540

12 August 1905

James Cheetham
Hannah Whiteman

James Cheetham
Hannah Whiteman
💍 1905/3528

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
20

Mungaroa
Mungaroa

1 week
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Lower Hutt

05/6022

Edward Whiteman, Father

12 August 1905

Rev. W. Marshall

No	540
Date of Notice	12 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Cheetham	Hannah Whiteman
	💍 1905/3528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Mungaroa	Mungaroa
Length of Residence	1 week	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	05/6022
Consent	Edward Whiteman, Father
Date of Certificate	12 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Marshall

541

12 August 1905

Elias John Smith
May Heginbotham

Elias John Smith
May Heginbotham
💍 1905/1850

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
24

Kaiwarra
Wellington

10 years
24 years

Residence of Mr. Heginbotham, Revans Street, Wellington

05/4284

12 August 1905

Rev. W. Shirey

No	541
Date of Notice	12 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Elias John Smith	May Heginbotham
	💍 1905/1850
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Kaiwarra	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Heginbotham, Revans Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4284
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirey

542

12 August 1905

Thomas William Vernon
Elizabeth Rohde

Thomas William Vernon
Elizabeth Rohde
💍 1905/1673

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

20
22

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/4230

No person in Colony with authority to give consents

26 August 1905

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	542
Date of Notice	12 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas William Vernon	Elizabeth Rohde
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas William Vernon	Elizabeth Rohde
	💍 1905/1673
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4230
Consent	No person in Colony with authority to give consents
Date of Certificate	26 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, 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).