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 339

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905

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

116

15 February 1905

Harry William Burgess
Helen Rodgers

Harry William Burgess
Helen Rodgers
💍 1905/4922

Widower
Widow

Stationer

43
37

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
4 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

05/741

15 February 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	116
Date of Notice	15 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry William Burgess	Helen Rodgers
	💍 1905/4922
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Stationer
Age	43	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	05/741
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

117

16 February 1905

John McLaughlin Roach
Mary Isabel Quinnell

John McLaughlin
Mary Isabel Quinnell
💍 1905/5047

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Nurse

25
28

Wellington
Wellington

Life
3 years

St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

05/1277

16 February 1905

Rev. J. A. Spott

No	117
Date of Notice	16 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McLaughlin Roach	Mary Isabel Quinnell
BDM Match (86%)	John McLaughlin	Mary Isabel Quinnell
	💍 1905/5047
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Nurse
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	05/1277
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Spott

118

17 February 1905

Thomas Renben Smith
Mary Louisa Vetori

Thomas Reuben Smith
Mary Louisa Vetori
💍 1905/4918

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

20
17

Wellington
Wellington

18 years
17 years

Residence of Mr. R. W. Smith, 10 South Avenue, Wellington

05/720

Edward Vetori, Father

17 February 1905

Rev. W. Shirer

No	118
Date of Notice	17 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Renben Smith	Mary Louisa Vetori
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Reuben Smith	Mary Louisa Vetori
	💍 1905/4918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	20	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. R. W. Smith, 10 South Avenue, Wellington
Folio	05/720
Consent	Edward Vetori, Father
Date of Certificate	17 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

119

18 February 1905

Lynn Rutherford McKelvie
Olive Rebecca Bowis

Lynn Rutherford McKelvie
Olive Rebecca Burns
💍 1905/4858

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
Life

St. Andrews Church, Terrace, Wellington

05/708

18 February 1905

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	119
Date of Notice	18 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lynn Rutherford McKelvie	Olive Rebecca Bowis
BDM Match (92%)	Lynn Rutherford McKelvie	Olive Rebecca Burns
	💍 1905/4858
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/708
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

120

18 February 1905

Arthur Green
Annie Hawken

Arthur Green
Annie Hawken
💍 1905/151

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

34
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/647

18 February 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	120
Date of Notice	18 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Green	Annie Hawken
	💍 1905/151
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/647
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, 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).