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 428

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

549

16 August 1905

Garnett Frederick Norton
Elizabeth Margaret Hicks

Garnett Frederick Norton
Elizabeth Margaret Hicks
💍 1905/1882

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
16 years

St. Joseph's Church, Bonchile Street, Wellington

05/4335

16 August 1905

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	549
Date of Notice	16 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Garnett Frederick Norton	Elizabeth Margaret Hicks
	💍 1905/1882
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	16 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Bonchile Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4335
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

550

16 August 1905

Bert Watt
Mary Ellen Doentley

Bert Witt
Mary Ellen Bentley
💍 1905/1666

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
4 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/4224

16 August 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	550
Date of Notice	16 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bert Watt	Mary Ellen Doentley
BDM Match (89%)	Bert Witt	Mary Ellen Bentley
	💍 1905/1666
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4224
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

551

16 August 1905

Henry Williamson
Rebecca Wood

Henry Williamson
Rebecca Wood
💍 1905/1855

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

16 months
Life

Kent Terrace, Presbyterian Church Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington

05/4298

16 August 1905

Rev. J. H. Elliott

No	551
Date of Notice	16 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Williamson	Rebecca Wood
	💍 1905/1855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 months	Life
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace, Presbyterian Church Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4298
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott

552

17 August 1905

Cephas Edward Barlow
Maud Robertson Copland

Ciphas Edward Barlow
Maud Robertson Copland
💍 1905/1926

Bachelor
Spinster

Tinsmith

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
6 months

Residence of Mr. E. Robson, 12 Rhodes Street, Wellington

05/4378

17 August 1905

Rev. J. Dawson

No	552
Date of Notice	17 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cephas Edward Barlow	Maud Robertson Copland
BDM Match (98%)	Ciphas Edward Barlow	Maud Robertson Copland
	💍 1905/1926
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tinsmith
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. E. Robson, 12 Rhodes Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4378
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

553

17 August 1905

Alexander James Georg
Alice Maude Petherick

Alexander James Gray
Alice Maude Pettrick
💍 1905/2080

Bachelor
Spinster

Record Clerk, City Council

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

26 years
25 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

05/4258

17 August 1905

Rev. G. P. Davage

No	553
Date of Notice	17 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander James Georg	Alice Maude Petherick
BDM Match (86%)	Alexander James Gray	Alice Maude Pettrick
	💍 1905/2080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Record Clerk, City Council
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	26 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	05/4258
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davage

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).