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 345

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar W. Stoddart

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

146

28 February 1905

Albon Charles Astridge
Harriett Kezia Willin

Albon Charles Astridge
Harriett Kazia Wilton
💍 1905/4926

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

43
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
35 years

St. James Church, Wellington South

05/722

28 February 1905

Rev W. Fraser

No	146
Date of Notice	28 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albon Charles Astridge	Harriett Kezia Willin
BDM Match (93%)	Albon Charles Astridge	Harriett Kazia Wilton
	💍 1905/4926
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	43	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	35 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/722
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Fraser

147

28 February 1905

Alexander Johnson
Clarice Boille

Alexander Johnson
Clarice Boielle
💍 1905/5901

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
15 years

Residence of Mr. A. Pauli, Woolcombe Street, Wellington

05/744

28 February 1905

Rev J. H. Elliott

No	147
Date of Notice	28 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Johnson	Clarice Boille
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander Johnson	Clarice Boielle
	💍 1905/5901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. A. Pauli, Woolcombe Street, Wellington
Folio	05/744
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. Elliott

148

1 March 1905

Walter Nelson Wardrop
Elizabeth Gainfort

Walter Nelson Wardrop
Elizabeth Gainforth
💍 1905/4927

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

4 weeks
1 day

Residence of Mr. W. H. Ham, Kilbirnie

05/723

1 March 1905

Rev W. Fraser

No	148
Date of Notice	1 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Nelson Wardrop	Elizabeth Gainfort
BDM Match (97%)	Walter Nelson Wardrop	Elizabeth Gainforth
	💍 1905/4927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 weeks	1 day
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. H. Ham, Kilbirnie
Folio	05/723
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Fraser

149

1 March 1905

Daniel Desilva Johannes
Mary Firth

Daniel Desilva Johannis
Mary Firth
💍 1905/4902

Bachelor
Spinster

Confectioner

33
20

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
4 days

Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian Street, Wellington

05/834

Mary Firth, Mother

1 March 1905

Staff Captain K. McLeod

No	149
Date of Notice	1 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Desilva Johannes	Mary Firth
BDM Match (98%)	Daniel Desilva Johannis	Mary Firth
	💍 1905/4902
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	05/834
Consent	Mary Firth, Mother
Date of Certificate	1 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Staff Captain K. McLeod

150

1 March 1905

Ernest Henry Minifie
Bertha Matilda Driggle

Ernest Henry Minifie
Bertha Matilda Diggle
💍 1905/5954

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
19

Wellington
Wellington

Life
4 years

Trinity Church, Wellington South

05/809

Arthur Miller, father of bride

1 March 1905

Rev G. Bond

No	150
Date of Notice	1 March 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Henry Minifie	Bertha Matilda Driggle
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Henry Minifie	Bertha Matilda Diggle
	💍 1905/5954
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	4 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/809
Consent	Arthur Miller, father of bride
Date of Certificate	1 March 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev G. Bond

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).