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 353

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

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

186

14 March 1905

Edward James Ussher
Annie Lucy Hilder

Edward James Ussher
Annie Lucy Hilder
💍 1905/4876

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

38
26

Martinborough
Wellington

14 years
3 days

St. Marks Church, Sussey Square, Wellington

05/702

14 March 1905

Rev R. Coffey

No	186
Date of Notice	14 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Ussher	Annie Lucy Hilder
	💍 1905/4876
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	38	26
Dwelling Place	Martinborough	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Sussey Square, Wellington
Folio	05/702
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev R. Coffey

187

14 March 1905

Albert Henry Matter
Agnes Evelyn Matter

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

23
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
8 years

St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/758

14 March 1905

Rev J. Gibb D.D.

No	187
Date of Notice	14 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Henry Matter	Agnes Evelyn Matter
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/758
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Gibb D.D.

188

15 March 1905

Alexander Wilson Leadbeater
Mary Emma Leadbeater

Alexander Wilson
May Emma Leadbeater
💍 1905/5891

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

21
19

Petone
Petone

4 years
19 years

St. Augustines Church, Petone

05/691

J. Leadbeater, Father

15 March 1905

Rev J. D. Russell

No	188
Date of Notice	15 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Wilson Leadbeater	Mary Emma Leadbeater
BDM Match (77%)	Alexander Wilson	May Emma Leadbeater
	💍 1905/5891
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	4 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church, Petone
Folio	05/691
Consent	J. Leadbeater, Father
Date of Certificate	15 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. D. Russell

189

16 March 1905

Richard Collins Vercoe
Annie Teandlyn

Richard Collins Vercoe
Annie Scandlyn
💍 1905/145

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

25
21

Hutt
Hutt

12 months
2 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/664

16 March 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	189
Date of Notice	16 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Collins Vercoe	Annie Teandlyn
BDM Match (93%)	Richard Collins Vercoe	Annie Scandlyn
	💍 1905/145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	12 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/664
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

190

16 March 1905

William Lindsley Alexander
Margaret Isabella Alexander

William Lindsley
Margaret Isabella Alexander
💍 1905/4861

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

38
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 day

St. Andrews Church, Wellington Terrace, Wellington

05/711

16 March 1905

Rev J. Gibson Smith

No	190
Date of Notice	16 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lindsley Alexander	Margaret Isabella Alexander
BDM Match (81%)	William Lindsley	Margaret Isabella Alexander
	💍 1905/4861
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	38	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Wellington Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/711
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Gibson Smith

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).