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 380

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

252

5 April 1906

Herbert John Jones
Eliza Jane Summers

Herbert John Jones
Eliza Jessie Summers
💍 1906/2919

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

22
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 month

Residence of W. W. Summers, Wadestown

06/2563

5 April 1906

Rev. N. L. Blathwayt

No	252
Date of Notice	5 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Jones	Eliza Jane Summers
BDM Match (90%)	Herbert John Jones	Eliza Jessie Summers
	💍 1906/2919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of W. W. Summers, Wadestown
Folio	06/2563
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. L. Blathwayt

253

5 April 1906

Harry Nicholson
Mary Maude Andrews

Harry Nicholson
Mary Maud Andrews
💍 1906/2923

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

25
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 1/2 years
27 years

Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

06/2567

5 April 1906

Rev. P. W. Fairclough

No	253
Date of Notice	5 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Nicholson	Mary Maude Andrews
BDM Match (97%)	Harry Nicholson	Mary Maud Andrews
	💍 1906/2923
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2567
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. W. Fairclough

254

5 April 1906

Harry Whitehead
Florence May Nichols Mitchell

Harry Whitehead
Florence May Nichol Mitchell
💍 1906/1035

Bachelor
Spinster

Signalman

29
16

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
16 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

06/2381

William Mitchell, father

5 April 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	254
Date of Notice	5 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Whitehead	Florence May Nichols Mitchell
BDM Match (98%)	Harry Whitehead	Florence May Nichol Mitchell
	💍 1906/1035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Signalman
Age	29	16
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2381
Consent	William Mitchell, father
Date of Certificate	5 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

255

5 April 1906

Alexander Grattan Burgess
Ann Jean Reynolds

Alexander Grittan Burgess
Ann Jean Reynolds
💍 1906/2832

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

33
28

Ngahauranga
Wellington

Life
3 weeks

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

06/2522

5 April 1906

Rev. W. J. Lewis

No	255
Date of Notice	5 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Grattan Burgess	Ann Jean Reynolds
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Grittan Burgess	Ann Jean Reynolds
	💍 1906/2832
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Ngahauranga	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2522
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Lewis

256

5 April 1906

William George Nunn
Lena Boyle

William George Hume
Lena Boyle
💍 1906/2946

Widower
Spinster

Driver

38
35

Wadestown
Wadestown

35 years
12 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

06/2616

5 April 1906

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	256
Date of Notice	5 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Nunn	Lena Boyle
BDM Match (92%)	William George Hume	Lena Boyle
	💍 1906/2946
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	38	35
Dwelling Place	Wadestown	Wadestown
Length of Residence	35 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2616
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

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).