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 419

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1905 Registrar G. W. Stodgell

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

503

25 July 1905

Arthur Albert McLeod
Ethel Elizabeth Hughes Maddock

Arthur Albert McLeod
Ethel Elizabeth Hughes Maddock
💍 1905/1698

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
16 years

St. James Church, Wellington South

05/4280

25 July 1905

Rev. W. Fraser

No	503
Date of Notice	25 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Albert McLeod	Ethel Elizabeth Hughes Maddock
	💍 1905/1698
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	16 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/4280
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fraser

504

25 July 1905

Robert James Nelson Donaldson
Mary Georgina Brown

Robert James Nelson Donaldson
Mary Georgina Brown
💍 1905/2123

Bachelor
Spinster

Tobacconist

29
36

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
10 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

05/4575

25 July 1905

Rev. J. R. Holley

No	504
Date of Notice	25 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert James Nelson Donaldson	Mary Georgina Brown
	💍 1905/2123
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tobacconist
Age	29	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4575
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Holley

505

25 July 1905

Harry Temple Atkinson
Mary Frances Waldegrave

Harry Temple Atkinson
Mary Frances Waldegrave
💍 1905/2053

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
23 years

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

05/4424

25 July 1905

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	505
Date of Notice	25 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Temple Atkinson	Mary Frances Waldegrave
	💍 1905/2053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4424
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

506

25 July 1905

John Walter Howard Payne
Frances Maud Payne

John Miller Howat
Frances Maud Payne
💍 1905/1854

Bachelor
Spinster

Cab Proprietor

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
6 years

Residence of Mr. Boulton, Frederick Street, Wellington

05/4297

25 July 1905

Rev. J. A. Eliott

No	506
Date of Notice	25 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Walter Howard Payne	Frances Maud Payne
BDM Match (77%)	John Miller Howat	Frances Maud Payne
	💍 1905/1854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cab Proprietor
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Boulton, Frederick Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4297
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Eliott

507

25 July 1905

Melville Ford
Ruth Ethel Walker

Melville Ford
Ruth Ethel Walker
💍 1905/1704

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

20
19

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
2 years

St. Mark's Church, Sussex Square, Wellington

05/4264

Mary Ann Ormes, Mother; Tom Walker, Father

25 July 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	507
Date of Notice	25 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Melville Ford	Ruth Ethel Walker
	💍 1905/1704
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Sussex Square, Wellington
Folio	05/4264
Consent	Mary Ann Ormes, Mother; Tom Walker, Father
Date of Certificate	25 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

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 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).