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 476

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar M. Hoag

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

778

20 November 1905

James Joseph Cronin
Ethel Poll

James Joseph Cronin
Ethel Poll
💍 1905/3564

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
22 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

05/6066

20 November 1905

Rev. J. R. Holley

No	778
Date of Notice	20 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Joseph Cronin	Ethel Poll
	💍 1905/3564
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6066
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Holley

779

20 November 1905

Arthur Warburton Renall
Bertha Mary Poll

Arthur Warburter Renall
Bertha Mary Poll
💍 1905/3565

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
28 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

05/6067

20 November 1905

Rev. J. R. Holley

No	779
Date of Notice	20 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Warburton Renall	Bertha Mary Poll
BDM Match (96%)	Arthur Warburter Renall	Bertha Mary Poll
	💍 1905/3565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6067
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Holley

780

20 November 1905

Samuel Patrick Anderson
Isabella Scott

Samuel Patrick Anderson
Isabella Scott
💍 1905/3578

Bachelor
Spinster

Braker

36
30

Island Bay
Wellington

3 years
7 years

Roman Catholic Church, Banchile Street, Wellington

05/6057

20 November 1905

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	780
Date of Notice	20 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Patrick Anderson	Isabella Scott
	💍 1905/3578
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Braker
Age	36	30
Dwelling Place	Island Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Banchile Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6057
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

781

20 November 1905

John McCallum Paget
Hilda Grace Paget

John McCallum
Hilda Grace Paget
💍 1905/3546

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

26
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
11 years

St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/6047

Pamela Paget, mother

21 November 1905

Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

No	781
Date of Notice	20 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McCallum Paget	Hilda Grace Paget
BDM Match (84%)	John McCallum	Hilda Grace Paget
	💍 1905/3546
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6047
Consent	Pamela Paget, mother
Date of Certificate	21 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

782

20 November 1905

Samuel Stanley Paget
Alexia Dagmar Brill

Samuel Stanley Paget
Alexia Dogniar Brill
💍 1905/3547

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
7 years

St. Johns Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/6048

20 November 1905

Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

No	782
Date of Notice	20 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Stanley Paget	Alexia Dagmar Brill
BDM Match (93%)	Samuel Stanley Paget	Alexia Dogniar Brill
	💍 1905/3547
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6048
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

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).