Intentions to Marry, 1906 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840431, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 378

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1906 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodgkins

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

242

3 April 1906

William Edwin Webb
Marion McIntyre

William Edwin Webb
Marion McIntyre
💍 1906/3099

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

34
30

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
7 years

Residence of Rev W. A. Evans, Hiropi Street, Wellington South

06/2599

3 April 1906

Rev W. A. Evans

No	242
Date of Notice	3 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edwin Webb	Marion McIntyre
	💍 1906/3099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev W. A. Evans, Hiropi Street, Wellington South
Folio	06/2599
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. A. Evans

243

3 April 1906

William Kershaw Cain
Norah Ann Cain

William Kershaw
Norah Ann Cain
💍 1906/2864

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
6 months

Salvation Army Home, 14 Thompson Street, Wellington

06/2531

3 April 1906

Rev G. J. Venning

No	243
Date of Notice	3 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Kershaw Cain	Norah Ann Cain
BDM Match (88%)	William Kershaw	Norah Ann Cain
	💍 1906/2864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Home, 14 Thompson Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2531
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev G. J. Venning

244

3 April 1906

Claude Hobart Pulsford
Clara Lydia Green

Claude Hobart Pulsford
Clara Lydia Green
💍 1906/1031

Bachelor
Divorcee (Decree absolute 30/1/1906)

Builder

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
12 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

06/2377

3 April 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	244
Date of Notice	3 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Hobart Pulsford	Clara Lydia Green
	💍 1906/1031
Condition	Bachelor	Divorcee (Decree absolute 30/1/1906)
Profession	Builder
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2377
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

245

4 April 1906

Ernest Henry Holland
Elizabeth Field

Ernest Henry Holland
Elizabeth Nield
💍 1906/1032

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 months

Registrars Office, Wellington

06/2378

4 April 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	245
Date of Notice	4 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Henry Holland	Elizabeth Field
BDM Match (97%)	Ernest Henry Holland	Elizabeth Nield
	💍 1906/1032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2378
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

246

4 April 1906

Arthur Sydney Ballance
Alice Violet Holmwood

Arthur Sydney Ballance
Alice Violet Holmwood
💍 1906/1097

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
5 years

St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington

06/2442

4 April 1906

Rev G. G. Davy

No	246
Date of Notice	4 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Sydney Ballance	Alice Violet Holmwood
	💍 1906/1097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2442
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev G. G. Davy

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).