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 593

District of GRANITY Quarter ending 31 January 1905 Registrar Grebau & Gordon

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

29 January 1905

Charles Copeland Thomas
Euphamia Dunn Ferguson

Charles Copeland Thomas
Euphemia Duns Muir Ferguson
💍 1905/4943

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

25
18

GRANITY
GRANITY

10 Months
5 years

W. Gilmores House, Millerton

05/890

Mother

11 January 1905

Rev J R Hart

No	38
Date of Notice	29 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Copeland Thomas	Euphamia Dunn Ferguson
BDM Match (87%)	Charles Copeland Thomas	Euphemia Duns Muir Ferguson
	💍 1905/4943
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	GRANITY	GRANITY
Length of Residence	10 Months	5 years
Marriage Place	W. Gilmores House, Millerton
Folio	05/890
Consent	Mother
Date of Certificate	11 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J R Hart

30 January 1905

Henry Mores Crouston
Eunna Bros Ferguson

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

22
21

Millerton
Millerton

2 years
5 years

Mission Hall, Millerton

05/891

4 February 1905

Rev G R Hart

No	40
Date of Notice	30 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Mores Crouston	Eunna Bros Ferguson
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Millerton	Millerton
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Mission Hall, Millerton
Folio	05/891
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev G R Hart

31 January 1905

Thomas Mulrooney
Emily Mulrooney

Thomas Mulrooney
Emilly McEnally
💍 1905/4947

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

24
23

Seddonville
GRANITY

11 years
2 years

W. Swafford's private house

05/894

8 February 1905

Rev Father Malloy

No	42
Date of Notice	31 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Mulrooney	Emily Mulrooney
BDM Match (73%)	Thomas Mulrooney	Emilly McEnally
	💍 1905/4947
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Seddonville	GRANITY
Length of Residence	11 years	2 years
Marriage Place	W. Swafford's private house
Folio	05/894
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Malloy

31 January 1905

John Russell Meighie
Henrietta Doweshe Milligan Quinn

John Russell McGhie
Henrietta Coutts Milligan Quinn
💍 1905/4945

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

29
28

Millerton
Mokihinui

8 months
11 years

House of Bride's Parents, Mokihinui

05/892

Father of Bride

8 February 1905

Rev N N Parker

No	43
Date of Notice	31 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Russell Meighie	Henrietta Doweshe Milligan Quinn
BDM Match (83%)	John Russell McGhie	Henrietta Coutts Milligan Quinn
	💍 1905/4945
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Millerton	Mokihinui
Length of Residence	8 months	11 years
Marriage Place	House of Bride's Parents, Mokihinui
Folio	05/892
Consent	Father of Bride
Date of Certificate	8 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev N N Parker

29 December 1905

Samuel Cawley
Mary Hawthorn Quinn

Samuel Campbell
Mary Hawthorn Quinn
💍 1905/4946

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

28
28

Mokihinui
Mokihinui

11 years
11 years

House of Bride's Parents, Mokihinui

05/893

7 January 1906

Rev N N Parker

No	44
Date of Notice	29 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Cawley	Mary Hawthorn Quinn
BDM Match (83%)	Samuel Campbell	Mary Hawthorn Quinn
	💍 1905/4946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Mokihinui	Mokihinui
Length of Residence	11 years	11 years
Marriage Place	House of Bride's Parents, Mokihinui
Folio	05/893
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev N N Parker

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).