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 433

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

569

24 August 1905

Archer John Moore
Ellen Dickie

Archer John Moore
Ellen Dickie
💍 1905/1932

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

30
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
8 years

Residence of Mrs. Fossette, 76 Austin Street, Wellington

05/4379

24 August 1905

Rev. J. J. North

No	569
Date of Notice	24 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archer John Moore	Ellen Dickie
	💍 1905/1932
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Fossette, 76 Austin Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4379
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

570

25 August 1905

Lewellyn Roland Hathaway
Henrietta Harriet McLaughlan

Llewellyn Roland Hathaway
Henrietta Harriet McLaughlin
💍 1905/1858

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
22 years

Residence of Mrs. McLaughlan, 5 Tarman Street, Wellington

05/4301

25 August 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	570
Date of Notice	25 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewellyn Roland Hathaway	Henrietta Harriet McLaughlan
BDM Match (96%)	Llewellyn Roland Hathaway	Henrietta Harriet McLaughlin
	💍 1905/1858
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. McLaughlan, 5 Tarman Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4301
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

571

25 August 1905

Sydney Ernest Carter
Lyla Gertrude Hall

Sydney Ernest Carter
Lyla Gertrude Hall
💍 1905/1878

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

21 years
19 years

Petone
Petone

3 years
2 years

Wesleyan Church, Petone

05/4348

Henrietta Hall, Mother

25 August 1905

Rev. G. B. Chappell

No	571
Date of Notice	25 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Ernest Carter	Lyla Gertrude Hall
	💍 1905/1878
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	21 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Petone
Folio	05/4348
Consent	Henrietta Hall, Mother
Date of Certificate	25 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Chappell

572

26 August 1905

James John Casey
Helen Mary O'Dowd

James John Casey
Helen Mary O'Dowd
💍 1905/2128

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
5 days

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

05/4579

26 August 1905

Rev. W. J. Lewis

No	572
Date of Notice	26 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James John Casey	Helen Mary O'Dowd
	💍 1905/2128
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4579
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Lewis

573

26 August 1905

William Paterson Anderson
Janet Park Griffin

William Paterson Anderson
Janet Park Griffin
💍 1905/1859

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

32
25

Christchurch
Wellington

7 years
7 years

House of Mrs. Griffin, 2 Bosworth Terrace, Wellington

05/4302

26 August 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	573
Date of Notice	26 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Paterson Anderson	Janet Park Griffin
	💍 1905/1859
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	7 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. Griffin, 2 Bosworth Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/4302
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

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).