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 321

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar R.W.S. (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

13 January 1905

Robert Sinclair Sutherland
Julia Gabriel Twomey

Robert Sinclair Sutherland
Julia Gabriel Twomey
💍 1905/5946

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

28
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
5 weeks

St. Joseph's Church, Banckle St.

05/775

13 January 1905

Rev. J. O. Shea

No	26
Date of Notice	13 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Sinclair Sutherland	Julia Gabriel Twomey
	💍 1905/5946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	5 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Banckle St.
Folio	05/775
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. O. Shea

13 January 1905

James Smith Macarthur
Mary Margaret Corrie Hannay

James Smith Macarthur
Mary Margaret Corrie Hannay
💍 1905/4912

Bachelor
Spinster

Company Secretary

31
28

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
Life

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

05/732

13 January 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	27
Date of Notice	13 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Smith Macarthur	Mary Margaret Corrie Hannay
	💍 1905/4912
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Company Secretary
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	05/732
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

13 January 1905

Charles Henry Aitken
Mary Sophia Marshall

Charles Henry Aitken
Mary Sophia Marshall
💍 1905/5971

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
1 year

Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington

05/802

13 January 1905

Rev. J. Dawson

No	28
Date of Notice	13 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Aitken	Mary Sophia Marshall
	💍 1905/5971
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	05/802
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

14 January 1905

Alfred Harris
Katherine Howell

Alfred Harris
Katherine Howell
💍 1905/4913

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. Prowse, 39 Abel Smith Street, Wellington

05/733

14 January 1905

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	29
Date of Notice	14 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Harris	Katherine Howell
	💍 1905/4913
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Prowse, 39 Abel Smith Street, Wellington
Folio	05/733
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

14 January 1905

James Bennie
Winnifred Hilda Clark

James Bennie
Winifred Hilda Clark
💍 1905/474

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

30
24

Wellington
Palmerston South

3 years
1 year

Residence of Rev. J. R. Clark, Palmerston Otago South

05/1494

14 January 1905

Rev. J. R. Clark

No	30
Date of Notice	14 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bennie	Winnifred Hilda Clark
BDM Match (98%)	James Bennie	Winifred Hilda Clark
	💍 1905/474
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Palmerston South
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. R. Clark, Palmerston Otago South
Folio	05/1494
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Clark

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).