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 415

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1905 Registrar G. H. Stodgkins

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

483

13 July 1905

Ernest Carey Ballinger
Agnes Rosina Skilling

Ernest Carey Ballinger
Agnes Rosina Skilling
💍 1905/1670

Bachelor
Spinster

Assistant Storeman

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/490

13 July 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	483
Date of Notice	13 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Carey Ballinger	Agnes Rosina Skilling
	💍 1905/1670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assistant Storeman
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/490
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

484

13 July 1905

William Ernest Heywood
Eva May Kilmister

William Earnest Heywood
Eva May Kilmister
💍 1905/2112

William Robert Crawford
Ada Kilmister
💍 1905/1546

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

25
19

Hutt
Taita

2 years
19 years

Knox Church, Hutt

05/4317

William Kilmister, Father

13 July 1905

Rev W. Marshall

No	484
Date of Notice	13 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ernest Heywood	Eva May Kilmister
BDM Match (98%)	William Earnest Heywood	Eva May Kilmister
	💍 1905/2112
BDM Match (63%)	William Robert Crawford	Ada Kilmister
	💍 1905/1546
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Taita
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Hutt
Folio	05/4317
Consent	William Kilmister, Father
Date of Certificate	13 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Marshall

485

13 July 1905

James Gow Skakle
Margaret Fielden

James Gow Skakle
Margaret Fielden
💍 1905/397

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 week

St. John's Manse, Woolcombe St., Wellington

05/4307

13 July 1905

Rev J. Gibb D.D.

No	485
Date of Notice	13 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gow Skakle	Margaret Fielden
	💍 1905/397
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 week
Marriage Place	St. John's Manse, Woolcombe St., Wellington
Folio	05/4307
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Gibb D.D.

486

17 July 1905

John Goodwin Stewart
Rosa Jane Stewart

John Goodwin
Rosa Jane Stewart
💍 1905/1852

Widower
Widow

Storeman

51
50

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
24 years

Residence of W. G. Bell, Rintoul Street, Wellington

05/4295

17 July 1905

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	486
Date of Notice	17 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Goodwin Stewart	Rosa Jane Stewart
BDM Match (80%)	John Goodwin	Rosa Jane Stewart
	💍 1905/1852
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Storeman
Age	51	50
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. G. Bell, Rintoul Street, Wellington
Folio	05/4295
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

487

19 July 1905

James Wiggins Thomson
Daisy Hall

James Higgins Thomson
Daisy Hall
💍 1905/1697

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

34
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
7 months

Residence of W. Hall, 39 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

05/4279

19 July 1905

Rev W. Fraser

No	487
Date of Notice	19 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Wiggins Thomson	Daisy Hall
BDM Match (98%)	James Higgins Thomson	Daisy Hall
	💍 1905/1697
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	34	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Residence of W. Hall, 39 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/4279
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Fraser

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).