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 453

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

600

24 August 1906

Percy Gardiner Smith
Lena Comer

Percy Gardiner Smith
Lena Corner
💍 1906/4433

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailors Presser

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
5 months

St. James' Church Wellington South

06/4501

24 August 1906

Rev W. Shirer

No	600
Date of Notice	24 August 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Gardiner Smith	Lena Comer
BDM Match (91%)	Percy Gardiner Smith	Lena Corner
	💍 1906/4433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailors Presser
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	5 months
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Wellington South
Folio	06/4501
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 August 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Shirer

601

24 August 1906

George Samuel Hooper
Louisa Hill Palmer

George Samuel Hooper
Louisa Hill Palmer
💍 1906/4794

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Mariner

31
27

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
4 days

Congregational Church Terrace Wellington

06/4559

24 August 1906

Rev J. R. Glasson

No	601
Date of Notice	24 August 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Samuel Hooper	Louisa Hill Palmer
	💍 1906/4794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Terrace Wellington
Folio	06/4559
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 August 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. R. Glasson

602

25 August 1906

Denis Mahoney
Hilda Field

Denis Mahoney
Hilda Field
💍 1906/1390

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

30
36

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
6 weeks

Registrars Office Wellington

06/4424

26 August 1906

G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

No	602
Date of Notice	25 August 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Mahoney	Hilda Field
	💍 1906/1390
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	30	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	06/4424
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

603

27 August 1906

Henry Herbert Jones
Margaret Perry

Henry Herbert Jones
Margaret Perry
💍 1906/1391

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter & Paperhanger

37
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
12 years

Registrars Office Wellington

06/4425

27 August 1906

G. G Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

No	603
Date of Notice	27 August 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Herbert Jones	Margaret Perry
	💍 1906/1391
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter & Paperhanger
Age	37	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	06/4425
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G Hodgkins Deputy Registrar

604

27 August 1906

John Hamilton
Margaret Eva Dyfe

John Hamilton
Margaret Eva Fyfe
💍 1906/4421

John Hamilton
Margaret Ann McNally
💍 1906/5342

John Hamilton
Elizabeth Jane Una Dobb
💍 1906/2457

John Hamilton
Maysie McVicker
💍 1906/3650

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
32

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

5 years
4 years

Residence of Mrs Hobbs Lower Hutt

06/4573

27 August 1906

Rev. W. Marshall

No	604
Date of Notice	27 August 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hamilton	Margaret Eva Dyfe
BDM Match (97%)	John Hamilton	Margaret Eva Fyfe
	💍 1906/4421
BDM Match (75%)	John Hamilton	Margaret Ann McNally
	💍 1906/5342
BDM Match (65%)	John Hamilton	Elizabeth Jane Una Dobb
	💍 1906/2457
BDM Match (62%)	John Hamilton	Maysie McVicker
	💍 1906/3650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	5 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Hobbs Lower Hutt
Folio	06/4573
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Marshall

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).