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 505

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1906 Registrar G. G. 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

836

13 November 1906

Claude Bertram Redward
Bertha May Sidey

Claude Bertram Redward
Bertha May Sidey
💍 1906/4732

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Clerk

28
26

Wellington
Wellington

28 years
8 days

St. James Church, Wellington South

06/6364

13 November 1906

Rev. W. Shirer

No	836
Date of Notice	13 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Bertram Redward	Bertha May Sidey
	💍 1906/4732
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Clerk
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	28 years	8 days
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington South
Folio	06/6364
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

837

13 November 1906

Samuel Joseph Sykes
Alicia Orpen Middlemiss

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 years

Residence of Rev. J. J. Work, Austin Street, Wellington

not solemnized

13 November 1906

Rev. J. J. Work

No	837
Date of Notice	13 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Joseph Sykes	Alicia Orpen Middlemiss
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. J. Work, Austin Street, Wellington
Folio	not solemnized
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Work

838

13 November 1906

George Alfred Swanger
Theresa Ann Eagles

George Alfred Swanger
Theresa Ann Eagles
💍 1906/6496

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
11 years

Residence of F. Eagles, Crofton

06/6478

13 November 1906

Rev. C. C. Harrison

No	838
Date of Notice	13 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Alfred Swanger	Theresa Ann Eagles
	💍 1906/6496
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of F. Eagles, Crofton
Folio	06/6478
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. C. Harrison

839

14 November 1906

George William Shaw
Lily Rhodes

George William Shaw
Lily Rhodes
💍 1906/6332

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

36
29

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
Life

Registrar's Office, Wellington

06/6280

14 November 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	839
Date of Notice	14 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Shaw	Lily Rhodes
	💍 1906/6332
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	36	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	06/6280
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 November 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

840

14 November 1906

Alfred Allan Wilson
Daisy Lawton

Alfred Allen Wilton
Daisy Lawton
💍 1906/6483

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
19 years

Residence of Rev. W. Williams, Revans Street, Wellington

06/6456

Mary Lawton, Mother

14 November 1906

Rev. W. Williams

No	840
Date of Notice	14 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Allan Wilson	Daisy Lawton
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Allen Wilton	Daisy Lawton
	💍 1906/6483
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. W. Williams, Revans Street, Wellington
Folio	06/6456
Consent	Mary Lawton, Mother
Date of Certificate	14 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Williams

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).