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 417

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1905 Registrar G. Stoag

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

493

21 July 1905

Brom Alexander McCamll
Margaret Stewart Smith

Evan Alexander McCaull
Margaret Stewart Smith
💍 1905/1853

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. McCamll, 22 Queen Street, Wellington

05/4296

21 July 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	493
Date of Notice	21 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Brom Alexander McCamll	Margaret Stewart Smith
BDM Match (89%)	Evan Alexander McCaull	Margaret Stewart Smith
	💍 1905/1853
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. McCamll, 22 Queen Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4296
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

494

22 July 1905

William Crawford
Annie Kissane

William Crawford
Annie Kissane
💍 1905/7263

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

26
36

Hutt
Hutt

3 years
1 year

Roman Catholic Church, Hutt

05/4340

22 July 1905

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	494
Date of Notice	22 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Crawford	Annie Kissane
	💍 1905/7263
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	36
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hutt
Folio	05/4340
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

495

22 July 1905

Henry Scarsfield
Annie Ada Mason

Henry Hearfield
Annie Ada Mason
💍 1905/1904

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
19

Ohariu Road
Ohariu Road

2 years
19 years

Baptist Church, Brooklyn

05/4373

Martha Mason, Mother

22 July 1905

Rev. W. Lamb

No	495
Date of Notice	22 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Scarsfield	Annie Ada Mason
BDM Match (91%)	Henry Hearfield	Annie Ada Mason
	💍 1905/1904
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Ohariu Road	Ohariu Road
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Brooklyn
Folio	05/4373
Consent	Martha Mason, Mother
Date of Certificate	22 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Lamb

496

22 July 1905

Alexander Palmer Horne
Mary Annie Murphy

Alexander Palmer Horne
Mary Anne Murphy
💍 1905/1677

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

30
21

Palmerston North
Wellington

2 years
1 month

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/4211

22 July 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	496
Date of Notice	22 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Palmer Horne	Mary Annie Murphy
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander Palmer Horne	Mary Anne Murphy
	💍 1905/1677
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/4211
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

497

22 July 1905

William Sessions Hanford
Julia Ann Hall

William Sessions Hanford
Julia Ann Hall
💍 1905/1892

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

25
18

Petone
Wellington

2 years
9 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Petone

05/4362

George Henry Hall, Father

22 July 1905

Rev. R. J. Liddell

No	497
Date of Notice	22 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Sessions Hanford	Julia Ann Hall
	💍 1905/1892
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Petone
Folio	05/4362
Consent	George Henry Hall, Father
Date of Certificate	22 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Liddell

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).