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 517

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1906 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodghins

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

886

29 November 1906

Wong Chong
Ug Keat Da

Wong Chong
Ng Keat Da
💍 1906/6438

Married by Chinese Customs about 1888
Married by Chinese Customs about 1888

Fruiterer

36
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Residence of Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street

06/6387

29 November 1906

Rev. F. K. Elliott

No	886
Date of Notice	29 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wong Chong	Ug Keat Da
BDM Match (95%)	Wong Chong	Ng Keat Da
	💍 1906/6438
Condition	Married by Chinese Customs about 1888	Married by Chinese Customs about 1888
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	36	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Daniel Wong, 80 Tasman Street
Folio	06/6387
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. K. Elliott

887

29 November 1906

John Wards
Sarah Ann Avison

John Ward
Sarah Ann Avison
💍 1906/7630

Bachelor
Widow 30/12/1903

Farmer

53
44

Hutt
Petone

20 years
20 years

Wesleyan Church, Molesworth Street, Wellington

06/6473

29 November 1906

Rev. C. Porter

No	887
Date of Notice	29 November 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wards	Sarah Ann Avison
BDM Match (95%)	John Ward	Sarah Ann Avison
	💍 1906/7630
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 30/12/1903
Profession	Farmer
Age	53	44
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	20 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Molesworth Street, Wellington
Folio	06/6473
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Porter

888

1 December 1906

Horace John Pickering
Ethel Amelia Massey

Horace John Pickering
Ethel Amelia Massey
💍 1906/7422

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

06/7506

1 December 1906

Rev. F. H. Sprott

No	888
Date of Notice	1 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace John Pickering	Ethel Amelia Massey
	💍 1906/7422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	06/7506
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. H. Sprott

889

1 December 1906

Robert Cranmer Smith
Winnifred Constance Howe

Robert Crammer Smith
Winifred Constance Howe
💍 1906/6508

Bachelor
Spinster

Telephone Exchange Assistant

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
2 years

Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

06/6468

1 December 1906

Rev. W. Fairclough

No	889
Date of Notice	1 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Cranmer Smith	Winnifred Constance Howe
BDM Match (95%)	Robert Crammer Smith	Winifred Constance Howe
	💍 1906/6508
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telephone Exchange Assistant
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	06/6468
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fairclough

890

1 December 1906

Jens Henry Groth
Jane Caroline Blow

Jens Henry Groth
Jane Caroline Blom
💍 1906/6366

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
24

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

06/6290

1 December 1906

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	890
Date of Notice	1 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jens Henry Groth	Jane Caroline Blow
BDM Match (97%)	Jens Henry Groth	Jane Caroline Blom
	💍 1906/6366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	06/6290
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 December 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, 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).