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 687

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar W. R. Evans

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

17 April 1905

Martin Patrick Southan
Elizabeth Ann Bolitho

Martin Patrick Smitham
Elizabeth Anne Bolitho
💍 1905/5446

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic

24
19

Greymouth
Reefton

2 years
5 days

Roman Catholic Church, Greymouth

05/2712

in Colony authorized to give consent

1 May 1905

Rev. James Taylor

No	17
Date of Notice	17 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Patrick Southan	Elizabeth Ann Bolitho
BDM Match (91%)	Martin Patrick Smitham	Elizabeth Anne Bolitho
	💍 1905/5446
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Reefton
Length of Residence	2 years	5 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Greymouth
Folio	05/2712
Consent	in Colony authorized to give consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Taylor

18 April 1905

Richard Joshua Moncrieff
Mary Simpson

Richard Sotheran
Mary Simpson
💍 1905/5434

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulder
Domestic

28
29

Greymouth
Greymouth

18 years
24 years

Residence of Mr. Charles Chubb, Shakespeare Street, Greymouth

05/2695

18 April 1905

Rev. J. W. York

No	18
Date of Notice	18 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Joshua Moncrieff	Mary Simpson
BDM Match (73%)	Richard Sotheran	Mary Simpson
	💍 1905/5434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulder	Domestic
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	18 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Charles Chubb, Shakespeare Street, Greymouth
Folio	05/2695
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. York

18 April 1905

Arthur Kendal Phillips
Florence Gertrude Moir

Arthur Kendal Phillips
Florence Gertrude Moir
💍 1905/5423

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet Maker
Domestic

23
21

Greymouth
Greymouth

2 years
20 years

At the private residence of Miss Elsie Moir, Lombard Street, Greymouth

05/2706

18 April 1905

Rev. R. Stewart

No	19
Date of Notice	18 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Kendal Phillips	Florence Gertrude Moir
	💍 1905/5423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet Maker	Domestic
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	At the private residence of Miss Elsie Moir, Lombard Street, Greymouth
Folio	05/2706
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Stewart

19 April 1905

Henry William Swift
Esther Rothwell

Henry William Swift
Esther Rothwell
💍 1905/5412

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter
Domestic

21
19

Greymouth
Greymouth

5 years
2 years

Trinity Church, Greymouth

05/2706

Richard Rothwell, father

31 April 1905

Rev. J. W. York

No	20
Date of Notice	19 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry William Swift	Esther Rothwell
	💍 1905/5412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter	Domestic
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	05/2706
Consent	Richard Rothwell, father
Date of Certificate	31 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. York

20 April 1905

Robert Woollett
Mary Ann Griffiths

Robert Woollett
Mary Ann Griffiths
💍 1905/5452

Widower
Widow

Miner
Domestic

53
52

Taylorville
Taylorville

8 days
8 days

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Greymouth

05/2713

20 April 1905

W. R. Evans, Deputy Registrar Marriages

No	21
Date of Notice	20 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Woollett	Mary Ann Griffiths
	💍 1905/5452
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	53	52
Dwelling Place	Taylorville	Taylorville
Length of Residence	8 days	8 days
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Greymouth
Folio	05/2713
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1905
Officiating Minister	W. R. Evans, Deputy Registrar Marriages

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).