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 423

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

523

2 August 1905

Samuel James Higgins
Ethel May Wood

Samuel James Higgins
Ethel May Wood
💍 1905/1935

Bachelor
Spinster

Candler

30
24

Kaiwarra
Wellington

2 years
24 years

Residence of Mr. Wood, 14 College Street, Wellington

05/4383

2 August 1905

Rev. J. J. North

No	523
Date of Notice	2 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel James Higgins	Ethel May Wood
	💍 1905/1935
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Candler
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Kaiwarra	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Wood, 14 College Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4383
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

524

2 August 1905

Louis Daldorf
Ethel May Grandon

Louie Daldorf
Ethel May Graydon
💍 1905/1661

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

36
19

Wellington
Wellington

18 years
2 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/4219

John Grandon, father

2 August 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	524
Date of Notice	2 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Daldorf	Ethel May Grandon
BDM Match (93%)	Louie Daldorf	Ethel May Graydon
	💍 1905/1661
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	36	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4219
Consent	John Grandon, father
Date of Certificate	2 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

525

2 August 1905

Herbert Henry Megrick
Florence Brocklehurst

Herbert Henry Meyrick
Florence Brocklehurst
💍 1905/1662

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser
Weaver

28
28

Petone
Petone

7 years
19 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/4220

2 August 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	525
Date of Notice	2 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Henry Megrick	Florence Brocklehurst
BDM Match (98%)	Herbert Henry Meyrick	Florence Brocklehurst
	💍 1905/1662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser	Weaver
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	7 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4220
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

526

2 August 1905

Christopher Giles Tesler
Alice Ann Spencer

Christopher Giles Tester
Alice Ann Spencer
💍 1905/2077

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
22 years

St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/4255

2 August 1905

Rev. G. P. Davey

No	526
Date of Notice	2 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Giles Tesler	Alice Ann Spencer
BDM Match (98%)	Christopher Giles Tester	Alice Ann Spencer
	💍 1905/2077
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4255
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davey

527

4 August 1905

Percy Sydney Walter Walsh
Elizabeth Ellen Jones

Percy Sydney Walter Walsh
Elizabeth Ellen Jones
💍 1905/1667

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

25
18

Wellington
Wellington

Life
12 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/4225

No person in column with authority to give consent

18 August 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	527
Date of Notice	4 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Sydney Walter Walsh	Elizabeth Ellen Jones
	💍 1905/1667
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4225
Consent	No person in column with authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	18 August 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1908. 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).