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 486

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar W. H. Story

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

827

7 December 1905

Harold Richard Pan-by
Olive Stratford Player

Harold Richard Furby
Olive Stratford Player
💍 1905/3486

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
3 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/5970

7 December 1905

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	827
Date of Notice	7 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Richard Pan-by	Olive Stratford Player
BDM Match (91%)	Harold Richard Furby	Olive Stratford Player
	💍 1905/3486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/5970
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

828

8 December 1905

Alexander Davidson
Catherine Taylor

Alexander Davidson
Catherine Taylor
💍 1905/3452

Bachelor
Spinster

Agricultural Laborer

31
26

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/5954

8 December 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	828
Date of Notice	8 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Davidson	Catherine Taylor
	💍 1905/3452
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agricultural Laborer
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/5954
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

829

8 December 1905

Joseph Flynn
Harriett Smith

Joseph Flynn
Harriett Smith
💍 1905/3581

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

25
29

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
12 months

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

05/6060

8 December 1905

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	829
Date of Notice	8 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Flynn	Harriett Smith
	💍 1905/3581
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	25	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6060
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

830

8 December 1905

Walter James Monthouse
Leah Elizabeth McLennan

Walter James Monkhouse
Leah Elizabeth McLennan
💍 1905/3536

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
6 years

Residence of Mrs. McLennan, 3 Empire Buildings, Adelaide Road

05/6038

Alexander McLennan, father

8 December 1905

Rev. W. Seiner

No	830
Date of Notice	8 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter James Monthouse	Leah Elizabeth McLennan
BDM Match (98%)	Walter James Monkhouse	Leah Elizabeth McLennan
	💍 1905/3536
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. McLennan, 3 Empire Buildings, Adelaide Road
Folio	05/6038
Consent	Alexander McLennan, father
Date of Certificate	8 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Seiner

831

9 December 1905

Alfred James Skinner
Elizabeth Simpson

Alfred James Skinner
Elizabeth Simpson
💍 1905/3588

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
22

Petone
Petone

3 years
13 months

Wesley Church, Petone

05/6091

9 December 1905

Rev. A. B. Chappell

No	831
Date of Notice	9 December 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Skinner	Elizabeth Simpson
	💍 1905/3588
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 years	13 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Petone
Folio	05/6091
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Chappell

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).