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 468

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1905 Registrar M. G. Stodghill

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

738

2 November 1905

James Pickering
Edith Jane Tucker

James Pickering
Edith Jane Tucker
💍 1905/3608

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. W. A. Mirk, 29 Rolleston Street, Wellington

05/6103

2 November 1905

Rev. J. J. North

No	738
Date of Notice	2 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Pickering	Edith Jane Tucker
	💍 1905/3608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. A. Mirk, 29 Rolleston Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6103
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

739

2 November 1905

Frederick Briggs
Amelia Rosetta Keatch

Frederick Biggs
Amelia Rossetta Keatch
💍 1905/3552

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
10 years

Residence of Mr. Nickling, 43 Hanson Street, Wellington

05/6030

Clara Amelia Keatch, Mother

2 November 1905

Rev. W. Stivers

No	739
Date of Notice	2 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Briggs	Amelia Rosetta Keatch
BDM Match (95%)	Frederick Biggs	Amelia Rossetta Keatch
	💍 1905/3552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Nickling, 43 Hanson Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6030
Consent	Clara Amelia Keatch, Mother
Date of Certificate	2 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Stivers

740

2 November 1905

John William Whitworth
Florence Sophia Miller

John William Whitworth
Florence Sophia Miller
💍 1905/3315

Widower
Spinster

Ironmonger

31
19

Wellington
Mangamahoe

20 years
1 month

Anglican Church, Mangamahoe

05/5815

No person in colony with authority to give consent

7 November 1905

Rev. T. N. Kitcat

No	740
Date of Notice	2 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Whitworth	Florence Sophia Miller
	💍 1905/3315
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Mangamahoe
Length of Residence	20 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Mangamahoe
Folio	05/5815
Consent	No person in colony with authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. N. Kitcat

741

4 November 1905

William Reynolds
Martha Hannah Palmer

William Reynolds
Martha Hannah Palmer
💍 1905/3698

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Wellington

05/6201

4 November 1905

Rev. C. E. Ward

No	741
Date of Notice	4 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Reynolds	Martha Hannah Palmer
	💍 1905/3698
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6201
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. E. Ward

742

6 November 1905

Edric Adolphus Paterson
Emma Namberg Leslie

Edria Adolphus Paterson
Emma Hamberg Leslie
💍 1905/3553

Bachelor
Spinster

Tramway Employee

33
26

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 years

Residence of Mr. T. W. Leslie, Town Hall, Wellington

05/6031

6 November 1905

Rev. W. Stivers

No	742
Date of Notice	6 November 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edric Adolphus Paterson	Emma Namberg Leslie
BDM Match (95%)	Edria Adolphus Paterson	Emma Hamberg Leslie
	💍 1905/3553
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tramway Employee
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. T. W. Leslie, Town Hall, Wellington
Folio	05/6031
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 November 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Stivers

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).