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 425

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1905

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

533

8 August 1905

Robert Charles Renner
Fanny Maud Darling

Robert Charles Remer
Fanny Maud Darling
💍 1905/2108

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

40
24

Wellington
Wellington

39 years
5 years

Residence of Mr. Renner, 6 McFarlane Street, Wellington

05/4313

8 August 1905

Rev. J. Paterson

No	533
Date of Notice	8 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Charles Renner	Fanny Maud Darling
BDM Match (95%)	Robert Charles Remer	Fanny Maud Darling
	💍 1905/2108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	40	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	39 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Renner, 6 McFarlane Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4313
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

534

8 August 1905

Alfred Ernest Sherwood
Ina Alice Birss

Alfred Ernest Sherwood
Ina Alice Birss
💍 1905/1907

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 year 6 months
3 months

Residence of the Rev. J. J. North, 63 Austin Street, Wellington

05/4376

8 August 1905

Rev. J. J. North

No	534
Date of Notice	8 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Ernest Sherwood	Ina Alice Birss
	💍 1905/1907
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year 6 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of the Rev. J. J. North, 63 Austin Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4376
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

535

8 August 1905

Joseph Midgley Taylor
Catherine Jane McPhee

Joseph Midgley Naylor
Catherine Jane McPhee
💍 1905/1687

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

33
33

Khandallah
Wellington

25 years
10 years

English Church, Johnsonville

05/4770

8 August 1905

Rev. J. Jasper

No	535
Date of Notice	8 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Midgley Taylor	Catherine Jane McPhee
BDM Match (98%)	Joseph Midgley Naylor	Catherine Jane McPhee
	💍 1905/1687
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	10 years
Marriage Place	English Church, Johnsonville
Folio	05/4770
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Jasper

536

9 August 1905

Norman McPherson Duncan
Johanna Hoare

Norman McPherson Duncan
Johanna Hoare
💍 1905/2126

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
25

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
6 months

Sacred Heart Church, 6 Hill Street, Wellington

05/4577

9 August 1905

Rev. W. J. Lewis

No	536
Date of Notice	9 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman McPherson Duncan	Johanna Hoare
	💍 1905/2126
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, 6 Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4577
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Lewis

537

9 August 1905

Henry Jessup
Esmeralda Kathleen Levestam

Henry Jessup
Esmeralda Kathleen Levestam
💍 1905/1705

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
24

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
2 years

St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington

05/4265

9 August 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	537
Date of Notice	9 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Jessup	Esmeralda Kathleen Levestam
	💍 1905/1705
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington
Folio	05/4265
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

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).