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 436

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

584

30 August 1905

Edward Stace Hazelton
Janet Phyllis Ross

Edward Stace Hylton
Janet Phyllis Ross
💍 1905/1939

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
26

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

05/4427

30 August 1905

Rev T. H. Sprott

No	584
Date of Notice	30 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Stace Hazelton	Janet Phyllis Ross
BDM Match (93%)	Edward Stace Hylton	Janet Phyllis Ross
	💍 1905/1939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4427
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev T. H. Sprott

585

30 August 1905

Henry Innis
Fanny Kirk

Henry Inniss
Fanny Kirk
💍 1905/1860

Divorced (Decree absolute 29/8/1905)
Divorced (Decree absolute 29/8/1905)

Carriage Proprietor

31
36

Wellington
Wellington

31 years
15 years

Residence of H. H. Innis, 164 Adelaide Road, Wellington

05/4303

30 August 1905

Rev J. H. Elliott

No	585
Date of Notice	30 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Innis	Fanny Kirk
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Inniss	Fanny Kirk
	💍 1905/1860
Condition	Divorced (Decree absolute 29/8/1905)	Divorced (Decree absolute 29/8/1905)
Profession	Carriage Proprietor
Age	31	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Residence of H. H. Innis, 164 Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	05/4303
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. Elliott

586

31 August 1905

Lott Edward O'Halloran
Mary Gallagher

Lott Edward OHalloran
Mary Gallagher
💍 1905/1886

Bachelor
Spinster

Mounted Police Constable

33
28

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
28 years

St Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

05/4339

31 August 1905

Rev F. O'Meara

No	586
Date of Notice	31 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lott Edward O'Halloran	Mary Gallagher
BDM Match (98%)	Lott Edward OHalloran	Mary Gallagher
	💍 1905/1886
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mounted Police Constable
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St Josephs Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4339
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev F. O'Meara

587

31 August 1905

John Hamarck
Sarah Johnson

John Hancock
Sarah Johnston
💍 1905/1675

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
28

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

2 years
2 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/4232

31 August 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	587
Date of Notice	31 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hamarck	Sarah Johnson
BDM Match (84%)	John Hancock	Sarah Johnston
	💍 1905/1675
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4232
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

588

31 August 1905

Arthur Porter
Mabel Victoria Thomas

Arthur Porter
Mabel Victoria Thomas
💍 1905/1933

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulding Machinist

28
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 years

Baptist Church, Berhampore, Wellington

05/4380

Elizabeth Ruth Thomas, Mother

31 August 1905

Rev W. Lamb

No	588
Date of Notice	31 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Porter	Mabel Victoria Thomas
	💍 1905/1933
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulding Machinist
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Berhampore, Wellington
Folio	05/4380
Consent	Elizabeth Ruth Thomas, Mother
Date of Certificate	31 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Lamb

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).