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 472

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar G. B. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

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

758

10 November 1905

Joe Ting
Yut Garn

Joe Ting
Yut Garn
💍 1905/3481

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

33
17

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 days

Residence of Mr. Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington

05/5983

no person in Colony to give consent

27 November 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	758
Date of Notice	10 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joe Ting	Yut Garn
	💍 1905/3481
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	33	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington
Folio	05/5983
Consent	no person in Colony to give consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

759

10 November 1905

Joe Lum
Chn Ah Nui (Nui)

Joe Lum
Chii Ah Nui
💍 1905/3482

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

18
18

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 days

Residence of Mr. Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington

05/5984

no person in colony to give consent

27 November 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	759
Date of Notice	10 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joe Lum	Chn Ah Nui (Nui)
BDM Match (75%)	Joe Lum	Chii Ah Nui
	💍 1905/3482
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	18	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington
Folio	05/5984
Consent	no person in colony to give consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

760

10 November 1905

Henry Percival Churchill
Edith Ruth Low

Henry Percival Churchill
Edith Ruth Low
💍 1905/3591

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

23
26

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
26 years

Residence of Mr. Lowe, 55A Owen Street, Wellington

05/6094

10 November 1905

Rev. G. Bond

No	760
Date of Notice	10 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Percival Churchill	Edith Ruth Low
	💍 1905/3591
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Lowe, 55A Owen Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6094
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond

761

11 November 1905

John Ramsay
Alice Maud Mary Scraggs

John Ramsay
Alice Maud Mary Scraggs
💍 1905/3555

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

23
19

Wellington
Wellington

1 1/2 years
19 years

St. Johns Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/6033

Mary Scraggs, Mother

11 November 1905

Rev. W. J. Finis

No	761
Date of Notice	11 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ramsay	Alice Maud Mary Scraggs
	💍 1905/3555
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6033
Consent	Mary Scraggs, Mother
Date of Certificate	11 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Finis

762

13 November 1905

Tan Mollier
Mary Johnson

Van Mollier
Mary Johnson
💍 1905/3413

James Saunders
Mary Johnson
💍 1905/1647

Widower
Spinster

Fireman

47
32

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
1 week

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/5938

13 November 1905

G. B. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	762
Date of Notice	13 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tan Mollier	Mary Johnson
BDM Match (95%)	Van Mollier	Mary Johnson
	💍 1905/3413
BDM Match (64%)	James Saunders	Mary Johnson
	💍 1905/1647
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	47	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/5938
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1905
Officiating Minister	G. B. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

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).