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 347

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

156

2 March 1905

Archie Knell Norris
Alice Edith Farrell

Archie Knell Norris
Alice Edith Parrell
💍 1905/5937

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

9 years

Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

05/790

2 March 1905

Rev J. Lane

No	156
Date of Notice	2 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archie Knell Norris	Alice Edith Farrell
BDM Match (97%)	Archie Knell Norris	Alice Edith Parrell
	💍 1905/5937
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	05/790
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Lane

157

3 March 1905

Frank Wolfgang Blair
Mabel Mary Eliza Blair

Frank Wolfgang
Mabel Mary Eliza Blair
💍 1905/5906

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

29
20

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
20 years

St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/757

Sophia Smith, Mother

3 March 1905

Rev J. Gibb D.D.

No	157
Date of Notice	3 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Wolfgang Blair	Mabel Mary Eliza Blair
BDM Match (85%)	Frank Wolfgang	Mabel Mary Eliza Blair
	💍 1905/5906
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/757
Consent	Sophia Smith, Mother
Date of Certificate	3 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Gibb D.D.

158

4 March 1905

Charles Bertram Hoare
Annie Hyde

Charles Bertram Hoare
Annie Hyde
💍 1905/5963

Bachelor
Spinster

Coachbuilder

23
19

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
2.5 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington

05/817

Emma Hyde, Mother

4 March 1905

Rev J. Dawson

No	158
Date of Notice	4 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Bertram Hoare	Annie Hyde
	💍 1905/5963
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coachbuilder
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	2.5 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	05/817
Consent	Emma Hyde, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Dawson

159

4 March 1905

Stephen John Keeble
Mary Haig Gray

Stephen John Keeble
Mary Haig Gray
💍 1905/137

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

24
25

Wellington
Wellington

5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/657

4 March 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	159
Date of Notice	4 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen John Keeble	Mary Haig Gray
	💍 1905/137
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence		5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/657
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

160

4 March 1905

Samuel Thomas Condliffe
Lydia Condliffe

Samuel Thomas
Lydia Condliffe
💍 1905/4879

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

24
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
17 years

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

05/824

4 March 1905

Rev C. Dallaston

No	160
Date of Notice	4 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Thomas Condliffe	Lydia Condliffe
BDM Match (78%)	Samuel Thomas	Lydia Condliffe
	💍 1905/4879
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	05/824
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev C. Dallaston

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 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).