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 343

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

136

24 February 1905

Charles Chammen
Lilias Key

Claude Charles Chammen
Lillas Key
💍 1905/156

Bachelor
Married (Husband deserted January 1897)

Labourer

22
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
4 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/652

24 February 1905

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	136
Date of Notice	24 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Chammen	Lilias Key
BDM Match (79%)	Claude Charles Chammen	Lillas Key
	💍 1905/156
Condition	Bachelor	Married (Husband deserted January 1897)
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/652
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

137

24 February 1905

Arthur Arnold Dall
Jessie Sutherland

Arthur Arnold Wall
Jessie Sutherland
💍 1905/5912

Bachelor
Spinster

Chef

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 weeks
4 weeks

Presbyterian Manse, 25 Pine Street, Wellington

05/745

24 February 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	137
Date of Notice	24 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Arnold Dall	Jessie Sutherland
BDM Match (97%)	Arthur Arnold Wall	Jessie Sutherland
	💍 1905/5912
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chef
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 weeks	4 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 25 Pine Street, Wellington
Folio	05/745
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

138

25 February 1905

George Henry Brown
Alice Maud Hitchings

George Henry Brown
Alice Maud Hitchings
💍 1905/134

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 year

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/654

25 February 1905

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	138
Date of Notice	25 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Brown	Alice Maud Hitchings
	💍 1905/134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/654
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

139

25 February 1905

Henry Fordham Reid
Ruby Alice Vause

Henry Bertram Reid
Ruby Alice Vause
💍 1905/5905

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

24
18

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
2 years

St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/756

Emily Vause, Mother

25 February 1905

Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

No	139
Date of Notice	25 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Fordham Reid	Ruby Alice Vause
BDM Match (89%)	Henry Bertram Reid	Ruby Alice Vause
	💍 1905/5905
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/756
Consent	Emily Vause, Mother
Date of Certificate	25 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

140

25 February 1905

Onslie Massey
Emily Louise Gotthusen

Anslie Massey
Emily Louise Gotthusen
💍 1905/133

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

34
27

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
1 day

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/653

25 February 1905

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	140
Date of Notice	25 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Onslie Massey	Emily Louise Gotthusen
BDM Match (96%)	Anslie Massey	Emily Louise Gotthusen
	💍 1905/133
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	1 day
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/653
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

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).