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 317

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar G. H. S. Toogood

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

5 January 1905

Paul Corliss Peters
Alice Mary Simpson

Paul Corliss Peters
Alice Mary Simpson
💍 1905/5945

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

19 yrs
3 yrs

St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington

05/774

5 January 1905

Rev Thos Devoy

No	6
Date of Notice	5 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paul Corliss Peters	Alice Mary Simpson
	💍 1905/5945
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 yrs	3 yrs
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	05/774
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Thos Devoy

5 January 1905

James Herbert Stock
Clare Kent Sinclair

James Herbert Stock
Clara Kent Sinclair
💍 1905/4910

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

39
29

Wellington
Wellington

39 yrs
29 yrs

St Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington

05/730

5 January 1905

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	7
Date of Notice	5 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Herbert Stock	Clare Kent Sinclair
BDM Match (97%)	James Herbert Stock	Clara Kent Sinclair
	💍 1905/4910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	39 yrs	29 yrs
Marriage Place	St Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	05/730
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

5 January 1905

William Henry Ballinger
Alice Maude Mary Morse

William Henry Ballinger
Alice Maud Mary Morse
💍 1905/4908

Divorcee Decree absolute 30/8/1901
Spinster

Settler

45
29

Wellington
Wellington

35 yrs
10 yrs

Residence of G. H. Barker, Upper Devon Street, Wellington

05/728

5 January 1905

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	8
Date of Notice	5 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Ballinger	Alice Maude Mary Morse
BDM Match (98%)	William Henry Ballinger	Alice Maud Mary Morse
	💍 1905/4908
Condition	Divorcee Decree absolute 30/8/1901	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	45	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	35 yrs	10 yrs
Marriage Place	Residence of G. H. Barker, Upper Devon Street, Wellington
Folio	05/728
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

5 January 1905

Andrew Hunter Lennox
Ethel Sarah Adair

Andrew Hunter Lennox
Ethel Sarah Adair
💍 1905/4911

Bachelor
Spinster

Missionary

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 Weeks
19 yrs

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

05/731

5 January 1905

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	9
Date of Notice	5 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Hunter Lennox	Ethel Sarah Adair
	💍 1905/4911
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Missionary
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 Weeks	19 yrs
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	05/731
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

6 January 1905

Edward Doney
Edith Adeline Schultze

Edward Doney
Edith Adeline Schultze
💍 1905/5852

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

40
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office, Wellington

05/624

6 January 1905

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	6 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Doney	Edith Adeline Schultze
	💍 1905/5852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	40	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	05/624
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 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).