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 323

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

18 January 1905

Chris Jenkins
Maud Gowland

Chris Jenkins
Maud Gowland
💍 1905/5858

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

48
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/630

18 January 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	36
Date of Notice	18 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Chris Jenkins	Maud Gowland
	💍 1905/5858
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	48	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/630
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

18 January 1905

Robert Doughty
Lily Hurst

Rupert Doughty
Lily Hurst
💍 1905/5859

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
14 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

05/631

18 January 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	18 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Doughty	Lily Hurst
BDM Match (93%)	Rupert Doughty	Lily Hurst
	💍 1905/5859
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	05/631
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1905
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

19 January 1905

Henry Bellendon Gordon
Kathleen Mary Numfrey

Henry Bellenden Gordon
Kathleen Mary Humfrey
💍 1905/5892

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Officer

30
25

Wellington
Lower Hutt

3½ years
25 years

St. James Church, Lower Hutt

05/692

19 January 1905

Rev. J. Jones

No	38
Date of Notice	19 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Bellendon Gordon	Kathleen Mary Numfrey
BDM Match (95%)	Henry Bellenden Gordon	Kathleen Mary Humfrey
	💍 1905/5892
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Officer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3½ years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	05/692
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Jones

19 January 1905

John August Holland
Matilda Adina Moore

John August Holland
Matilda Adnie Moore
💍 1905/5953

Divorced (decree absolute 14 November 1899)
Spinster

Harbour Board Employee

44
34

Wellington
Wellington

22 years
3 months

Residence of Rev. G. Bond, Wellington South

05/808

19 January 1905

Rev. G. Bond

No	39
Date of Notice	19 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John August Holland	Matilda Adina Moore
BDM Match (92%)	John August Holland	Matilda Adnie Moore
	💍 1905/5953
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute 14 November 1899)	Spinster
Profession	Harbour Board Employee
Age	44	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. G. Bond, Wellington South
Folio	05/808
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond

19 January 1905

Henry Edward Charles Baldwinson
Anna Eliza Douglas Freeman

Henry Edward Charles Baldwinson
Anna Eliza Douglas Freeman
💍 1905/5966

Bachelor
Spinster

Paperhanger

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
2 weeks

Residence of Rev. G. Dallaston, Austin Street, Wellington

05/820

19 January 1905

Rev. G. Dallaston

No	40
Date of Notice	19 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Edward Charles Baldwinson	Anna Eliza Douglas Freeman
	💍 1905/5966
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Paperhanger
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. G. Dallaston, Austin Street, Wellington
Folio	05/820
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. 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 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).