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 669

District of Waimangaroa Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar W. A. Richards

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

31 October 1905

William Henry Walker
Mary Ann Kitchen

William Henry Walker
Mary Ann Kitchen
💍 1905/3756

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

29
17

Waimangaroa
Waimangaroa

29 years
12 years

Residence of Thos Kitchen

05/6286

Thomas Kitchen, father

31 October 1905

Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	31 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Walker	Mary Ann Kitchen
	💍 1905/3756
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	29	17
Dwelling Place	Waimangaroa	Waimangaroa
Length of Residence	29 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Thos Kitchen
Folio	05/6286
Consent	Thomas Kitchen, father
Date of Certificate	31 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

25 November 1905

Alexander Jack
Rose Ellen Farmiloe

Alexander Jack
Rose Ellen Farmiloe
💍 1905/3757

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

30
21

Denniston
Denniston

5 years
13 years

Church of England & Mission Hall

05/6287

25 November 1905

Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

No	10
Date of Notice	25 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Jack	Rose Ellen Farmiloe
	💍 1905/3757
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Denniston	Denniston
Length of Residence	5 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Church of England & Mission Hall
Folio	05/6287
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

28 November 1905

Edward Godfrey Watson
Margaret Annessy

Oswald Godfrey Watson
Margaret Hennessy
💍 1905/3784

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

25
16

Waimangaroa
Waimangaroa

4 months
4 months

Residence of John Annessy

05/6291

John Annessy, father

28 November 1905

Rev. J. C. Walshe, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	28 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Godfrey Watson	Margaret Annessy
BDM Match (87%)	Oswald Godfrey Watson	Margaret Hennessy
	💍 1905/3784
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	25	16
Dwelling Place	Waimangaroa	Waimangaroa
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Residence of John Annessy
Folio	05/6291
Consent	John Annessy, father
Date of Certificate	28 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Walshe, Roman Catholic

9 December 1905

William James Tolley
Mary Jane Elliott

William James Toll
Mary Jane Elliott
💍 1905/3765

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

26
27

Denniston
Denniston

2 years
20 years

Church of England

05/6288

9 December 1905

Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

No	12
Date of Notice	9 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Tolley	Mary Jane Elliott
BDM Match (95%)	William James Toll	Mary Jane Elliott
	💍 1905/3765
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Denniston	Denniston
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	05/6288
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

13 December 1905

David Laving
Isabella Cumming

David Garing
Isabella Cumming
💍 1905/3783

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

27
18

Denniston
Denniston

22 years
8 years

Residence of W. Cumming

05/6290

W. Cumming, father

13 December 1905

Rev. John Harris, Primitive Methodist

No	13
Date of Notice	13 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Laving	Isabella Cumming
BDM Match (92%)	David Garing	Isabella Cumming
	💍 1905/3783
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Denniston	Denniston
Length of Residence	22 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. Cumming
Folio	05/6290
Consent	W. Cumming, father
Date of Certificate	13 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Harris, Primitive Methodist

14 December 1905

Joseph Simpson
Ellen Rodgers

Joseph Simpson
Sarah Ellen Hodgetts
💍 1905/3776

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

25
19

Burnett Face
Burnett Face

3 years
19 years

Residence of Isaac Rodgers

05/6289

Isaac Rodgers, father

14 December 1905

Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

No	14
Date of Notice	14 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Simpson	Ellen Rodgers
BDM Match (78%)	Joseph Simpson	Sarah Ellen Hodgetts
	💍 1905/3776
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Burnett Face	Burnett Face
Length of Residence	3 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Isaac Rodgers
Folio	05/6289
Consent	Isaac Rodgers, father
Date of Certificate	14 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Day, Church of England

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).