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 456

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

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

677

10 October 1905

Chan Cheok Gin
Kow Hing Jew Ah Poor

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer

35
29

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
7 days

Residence of Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington

05/5999

10 October 1905

Rev. J. K. Schott

No	677
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Chan Cheok Gin	Kow Hing Jew Ah Poor
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street, Wellington
Folio	05/5999
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Schott

678

10 October 1905

James John Ames
Christina Sarah Bourne

James John Ames
Christina Sarah Burns
💍 1905/3699

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
27

Wellington
Wellington

32 years
3 years

St. Thomas Church, Wellington South

05/6202

10 October 1905

Rev. J. Walker

No	678
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James John Ames	Christina Sarah Bourne
BDM Match (95%)	James John Ames	Christina Sarah Burns
	💍 1905/3699
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	32 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/6202
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walker

679

10 October 1905

Albert George Transcott
Ellen May Churchill

Albert George Truscott
Ellen May Churchill
💍 1905/3576

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

33
26

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
26 years

Residence of M. J. Churchill, 39 Boulcott Street, Wellington

05/6055

10 October 1905

Rev. J. Paterson

No	679
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Transcott	Ellen May Churchill
BDM Match (96%)	Albert George Truscott	Ellen May Churchill
	💍 1905/3576
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of M. J. Churchill, 39 Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6055
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

680

10 October 1905

Arthur Douglas Parsonage
Margaret Agnes Thomson

Arthur Douglas Parsonage
Margaret Agnes Thomson
💍 1905/3685

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

27
28

Wellington
Wellington

Life
12 years

St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

05/6189

10 October 1905

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	680
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Douglas Parsonage	Margaret Agnes Thomson
	💍 1905/3685
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	05/6189
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

681

10 October 1905

James Haining
Margaret Grace Saywell Gray

James Haining
Margaret Grace Sazwell Gray
💍 1905/3412

Bachelor
Spinster

Iron Moulder

23
24

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/5920

10 October 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	681
Date of Notice	10 October 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Haining	Margaret Grace Saywell Gray
BDM Match (98%)	James Haining	Margaret Grace Sazwell Gray
	💍 1905/3412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Iron Moulder
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/5920
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. 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).