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 331

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar G. F. 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

31 January 1905

Prentie Taylor
Hettie Cathereen Frasi

Bertie Taylor
Harriet Cathereen Frasi
💍 1905/5888

Bachelor
Spinster

Dyer & Cleaner

22
25

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
3 years

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington

05/688

31 January 1905

Rev. J. Walker

No	76
Date of Notice	31 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Prentie Taylor	Hettie Cathereen Frasi
BDM Match (81%)	Bertie Taylor	Harriet Cathereen Frasi
	💍 1905/5888
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dyer & Cleaner
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington
Folio	05/688
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walker

1 February 1905

Horatio Hall
May Barlow

Horatio Hall
May Barlow
💍 1905/4900

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

25
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
26 years

Residence of A. Laurenson, 24 Hargreaves Street, Wellington

05/832

1 February 1905

Rev. M. J. Brill

No	77
Date of Notice	1 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horatio Hall	May Barlow
	💍 1905/4900
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of A. Laurenson, 24 Hargreaves Street, Wellington
Folio	05/832
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. J. Brill

1 February 1905

Arthur James Seed
Bertha Christina Aldrich

Arthur James Seed
Bertha Christina Aldrich
💍 1905/1693

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
30

Wellington
Upper Hutt

26 years
10 years

St. John's Church, Trentham

05/74276

1 February 1905

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	78
Date of Notice	1 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Seed	Bertha Christina Aldrich
	💍 1905/1693
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	26 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Trentham
Folio	05/74276
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

1 February 1905

Percy Norwood Denton
Alice Maud Ross

Percy Norwood Denton
Alice Maud Ross
💍 1905/5929

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

29
25

Wellington
Wellington

1 1/2 months
25 years

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boncott Street, Wellington

05/781

1 February 1905

Rev. T. Devoy

No	79
Date of Notice	1 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Norwood Denton	Alice Maud Ross
	💍 1905/5929
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 1/2 months	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boncott Street, Wellington
Folio	05/781
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Devoy

1 February 1905

John Sinclair Bevitt
Jessica Holman Bevitt

John Sinclair Johnson
Jessica Hohnan Revitt
💍 1905/4882

Widower
Spinster

Postal Official

34
26

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
4 years

Residence of Mr. Bevitt, Schon, 3 Terrace, Wellington

05/82

1 February 1905

Rev. J. Reid Glasson

No	80
Date of Notice	1 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sinclair Bevitt	Jessica Holman Bevitt
BDM Match (76%)	John Sinclair Johnson	Jessica Hohnan Revitt
	💍 1905/4882
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Postal Official
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Bevitt, Schon, 3 Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/82
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Reid Glasson

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).