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 319

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

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

9 January 1905

William Williams
Helen Lawrence

William Williams
Helen Lawrence
💍 1905/5950

Widower
Spinster

Cleaner

47
29

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
29 years

Trinity Wesleyan Church, Wellington South

05/805

9 January 1905

Rev. G. Bond

No	16
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Williams	Helen Lawrence
	💍 1905/5950
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Cleaner
Age	47	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Wesleyan Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/805
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond

9 January 1905

Walter James Edmonds
Maude Ellen Barrett

Walter James Edmonds
Maude Ellen Barrett
💍 1905/5926

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter or Joiner

23
19

Wellington
Wellington

1 year 9 months
19 years

St. Joseph's Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

05/778

Joseph Thomas Barrett, father

9 January 1905

Rev. R. B. Moloney

No	17
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter James Edmonds	Maude Ellen Barrett
	💍 1905/5926
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter or Joiner
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year 9 months	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	05/778
Consent	Joseph Thomas Barrett, father
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. B. Moloney

9 January 1905

Michael Ribler
Ellen Elizabeth Waters

Michael Kübler
Ellen Elizabeth Waters
💍 1905/5940

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

34
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
21 years

Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

05/793

9 January 1905

Rev. P. W. Fairclough

No	18
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Ribler	Ellen Elizabeth Waters
BDM Match (90%)	Michael Kübler	Ellen Elizabeth Waters
	💍 1905/5940
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	21 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	05/793
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. W. Fairclough

10 January 1905

Charles Frederick Buscke
Dinah Helen Eglinton

Charles Frederick Buscke
Dinah Helen Eglinton
💍 1905/4870

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

26
23

Gisborne
Wellington

23 years
6 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

05/696

10 January 1905

Rev. R. Coffey

No	19
Date of Notice	10 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frederick Buscke	Dinah Helen Eglinton
	💍 1905/4870
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	05/696
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

10 January 1905

William Leask Esson
Emma Mary Hawk

William Leask Esson
Emma Mary Hawk
💍 1905/4865

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

33
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

St. James Church, Wellington South

05/714

10 January 1905

Rev. W. Shirer

No	20
Date of Notice	10 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Leask Esson	Emma Mary Hawk
	💍 1905/4865
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington South
Folio	05/714
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).