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 457

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

682

10 October 1905

Thomas Walsh
Effie Lillien Worth

Thomas Walsh
Effie Lilien Worth
💍 1905/3419

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

22
17

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
17 years

Registrars Office

05/5921

Charles Frederick Worth, Father

10 October 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	682
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Walsh	Effie Lillien Worth
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Walsh	Effie Lilien Worth
	💍 1905/3419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office
Folio	05/5921
Consent	Charles Frederick Worth, Father
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

683

10 October 1905

Arthur Punchland Harris
Susan Boon

Arthur Buckland Harris
Susan Boon
💍 1905/3686

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

35
35

Pahautanui
Pahautanui

25 years
14 years

St. Pauls pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

05/6190

10 October 1905

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	683
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Punchland Harris	Susan Boon
BDM Match (94%)	Arthur Buckland Harris	Susan Boon
	💍 1905/3686
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Pahautanui	Pahautanui
Length of Residence	25 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6190
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

684

10 October 1905

Edward Eden Johns
Violet Rubina Moran

Edward Eden Johns
Violet Rubina Moran
💍 1905/3531

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. Moran, 13 Sages Lane, Wellington

05/6025

Grace Moran, Mother

10 October 1905

Rev. W. Shiner

No	684
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Eden Johns	Violet Rubina Moran
	💍 1905/3531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Moran, 13 Sages Lane, Wellington
Folio	05/6025
Consent	Grace Moran, Mother
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shiner

685

10 October 1905

Hurl Hampton Banks
Catherine Elsie Banks

Hurl Hampton
Catherine Elsie Banks
💍 1905/3477

Bachelor
Spinster

Home Furnisher

28
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
11 years

St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington

05/5979

10 October 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	685
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hurl Hampton Banks	Catherine Elsie Banks
BDM Match (83%)	Hurl Hampton	Catherine Elsie Banks
	💍 1905/3477
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Home Furnisher
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	11 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington
Folio	05/5979
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

686

12 October 1905

Edward Lawrence Andrews
Hilda Margaret Milner

Edward Laurence Andrews
Hilda Margaret Milner
💍 1905/3607

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

26
22

Wellington
Wellington Terrace, Wellington

3 days
4 years

Residence of the Brides Mother, Mr. Milner, Wellington Terrace, Wellington

05/6086

12 October 1905

Rev. P. W. Fairclough

No	686
Date of Notice	12 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Lawrence Andrews	Hilda Margaret Milner
BDM Match (98%)	Edward Laurence Andrews	Hilda Margaret Milner
	💍 1905/3607
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington Terrace, Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Brides Mother, Mr. Milner, Wellington Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/6086
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. W. Fairclough

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).