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 366

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

251

11 April 1905

Charles Whitfield
Sarah Louisa Kringemore

Charles Whitfield
Sarah Louisa Stringemore
💍 1905/5329

Bachelor
Spinster

Importer

33
39

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Registrar's Office

05/2283

11 April 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	251
Date of Notice	11 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Whitfield	Sarah Louisa Kringemore
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Whitfield	Sarah Louisa Stringemore
	💍 1905/5329
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Importer
Age	33	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	05/2283
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

252

11 April 1905

William Henry Wood
Rose Bertha Thompstone

William Henry Wood
Rose Bertha Thompstone
💍 1905/5355

Bachelor
Spinster

Fettler

28
27

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
6 years

Residence of Mr. Wood, 14 College Street

05/2260

11 April 1905

Rev. J. J. North

No	252
Date of Notice	11 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Wood	Rose Bertha Thompstone
	💍 1905/5355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fettler
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Wood, 14 College Street
Folio	05/2260
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

253

12 April 1905

Charles Philip Lawson
Jane Fredericka Lawson

Charles Philp
Jane Fredericka Lawson
💍 1905/5330

Bachelor
Spinster

Fellmonger

26
20

Petone
Petone

Life
4 years

Registrar's Office

05/2284

Matilda Lawson, Mother

12 April 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	253
Date of Notice	12 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Philip Lawson	Jane Fredericka Lawson
BDM Match (81%)	Charles Philp	Jane Fredericka Lawson
	💍 1905/5330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fellmonger
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	Life	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	05/2284
Consent	Matilda Lawson, Mother
Date of Certificate	12 April 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

254

13 April 1905

William Charles Adlam
Ruby Violet Endley

William Charles Adlam
Ruby Violet Cudby
💍 1905/5331

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach Driver

26
17

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

14 months
17 years

Registrar's Office

05/2285

William Endley, Father

13 April 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	254
Date of Notice	13 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Charles Adlam	Ruby Violet Endley
BDM Match (89%)	William Charles Adlam	Ruby Violet Cudby
	💍 1905/5331
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach Driver
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	14 months	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	05/2285
Consent	William Endley, Father
Date of Certificate	13 April 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

255

13 April 1905

Douglas Smith Patricks
Eleanor Cowzens

Douglas Smith Patrick
Eleanor Couzens
💍 1905/376

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 weeks
3 days

St. John's Manse, Woolcombe Street

05/2375

13 April 1905

Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

No	255
Date of Notice	13 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Smith Patricks	Eleanor Cowzens
BDM Match (94%)	Douglas Smith Patrick	Eleanor Couzens
	💍 1905/376
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	St. John's Manse, Woolcombe Street
Folio	05/2375
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

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).