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 663

District of Motueka Quarter ending 31 March 1906 Registrar Henry Alexander Tarrant

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

9 January 1906

James Alfred Wallace
Florence Mabel Brougham

James Alfred Wallace
Florence Mabel Brougham
💍 1906/2213

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic duties

24
23

Motueka
Motueka

3 days
23 years

St. Thomas Church, Motueka

06/887

9 January 1906

Rev. Thomas Johnston, Church of England

No	50
Date of Notice	9 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alfred Wallace	Florence Mabel Brougham
	💍 1906/2213
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Motueka	Motueka
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church, Motueka
Folio	06/887
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Johnston, Church of England

17 February 1906

Herbert William Henry Haines
Ada Sophia Rose

Herbert William Henry Haines
Ada Sophia Rose
💍 1906/2216

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

23
25

Wellington
Upper Moutere

23 years
6 days

Johannes Joachim Hennerich's house

06/890

17 February 1906

Rev. Johannes Carl George Theil - Lutheran

No	51
Date of Notice	17 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert William Henry Haines	Ada Sophia Rose
	💍 1906/2216
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Upper Moutere
Length of Residence	23 years	6 days
Marriage Place	Johannes Joachim Hennerich's house
Folio	06/890
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. Johannes Carl George Theil - Lutheran

17 February 1906

Walter George Bensemann
Sophia Marie Dorothea Siggelkow

Walter George Bensemann
Sophie Marie Dorothea Siggelkow
💍 1906/2214

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Servant

34
22

Upper Moutere
Upper Moutere

34 years
22 years

Walter George Bensemann's house

06/888

17 February 1906

Rev. Thomas Johnston, Church of England

No	52
Date of Notice	17 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter George Bensemann	Sophia Marie Dorothea Siggelkow
BDM Match (98%)	Walter George Bensemann	Sophie Marie Dorothea Siggelkow
	💍 1906/2214
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Servant
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Upper Moutere	Upper Moutere
Length of Residence	34 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Walter George Bensemann's house
Folio	06/888
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Johnston, Church of England

22 February 1906

Herbert William Henry Haines
Ada Sophia Rose

Herbert William Henry Haines
Ada Sophia Rose
💍 1906/2216

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

23
25

Upper Moutere
Upper Moutere

3 days
6 days

Johannes Joachim Hennerich Rose's house, Moutere

See No. 51

22 February 1906

Johannes Carl George Theil - Lutheran

No	53
Date of Notice	22 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert William Henry Haines	Ada Sophia Rose
	💍 1906/2216
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Upper Moutere	Upper Moutere
Length of Residence	3 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Johannes Joachim Hennerich Rose's house, Moutere
Folio	See No. 51
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Johannes Carl George Theil - Lutheran

2 March 1906

Robert John Harold Bradley
Florence Annie Goodall

Robert John Harold Bradley
Florence Annie Goodall
💍 1906/2217

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
19

Riwaka
Riwaka

21 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Motueka

06/891

2 March 1906

H. A. Tarrant, Registrar

No	54
Date of Notice	2 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert John Harold Bradley	Florence Annie Goodall
	💍 1906/2217
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Riwaka	Riwaka
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Motueka
Folio	06/891
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1906
Officiating Minister	H. A. Tarrant, Registrar

3 March 1906

Robert John Harold Bradley
Florence Annie Goodall

Robert John Harold Bradley
Florence Annie Goodall
💍 1906/2217

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
19

Riwaka
Riwaka

21 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Motueka

06/891

3 March 1906

H. A. Tarrant, Registrar

No	54
Date of Notice	3 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert John Harold Bradley	Florence Annie Goodall
	💍 1906/2217
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Riwaka	Riwaka
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Motueka
Folio	06/891
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1906
Officiating Minister	H. A. Tarrant, 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 1908. 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).