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 524

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

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

921

10 December 1906

Charles Wadley
Alice Maude Cresswell

Charles Wadley
Alice Maud Cresswell
💍 1906/6502

Widower
Spinster

Stevedore

38
22

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
22 years

Residence of Mr Cresswell, 9 Alpha Street

06/6466

10 December 1906

Rev. P. W. Fairclough

No	921
Date of Notice	10 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Wadley	Alice Maude Cresswell
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Wadley	Alice Maud Cresswell
	💍 1906/6502
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Stevedore
Age	38	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Cresswell, 9 Alpha Street
Folio	06/6466
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. W. Fairclough

922

10 December 1906

Frederick Henry Hill
Helen Maude Lusted

Frederick Henry Hill
Helen Maude Lusted Parkin
💍 1906/6506

Bachelor
Widow

Painter

33
28

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

Residence of Mrs O'Brien, 25 Queen Street

06/6489

10 December 1906

Rev. J. Dawson

No	922
Date of Notice	10 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Henry Hill	Helen Maude Lusted
BDM Match (86%)	Frederick Henry Hill	Helen Maude Lusted Parkin
	💍 1906/6506
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Painter
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs O'Brien, 25 Queen Street
Folio	06/6489
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

923

10 December 1906

Ernest Albert Hitchings
Ivy Blick

Ernest Albert Hitchings
Ivy Blick
💍 1906/6525

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

22
21

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

5 years
21 years

Residence of Mr Hoare, 161 Adelaide Road

06/6491

10 December 1906

Rev. W. Lamb

No	923
Date of Notice	10 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Albert Hitchings	Ivy Blick
	💍 1906/6525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	5 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Hoare, 161 Adelaide Road
Folio	06/6491
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Lamb

924

11 December 1906

James Thomas Harris
Edith Annie Lee

James Thomas Harris
Edith Annie Lee
💍 1906/6414

Widower
Widow

Stoker

40
33

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

10 years
1 year

St Peters Church, Wellington

06/6338

11 December 1906

Rev. C. W. J. Maclaverty

No	924
Date of Notice	11 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Thomas Harris	Edith Annie Lee
	💍 1906/6414
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Stoker
Age	40	33
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	06/6338
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. W. J. Maclaverty

925

11 December 1906

William Martin
Nellie Frances Edwards

William Martin Ham
Nellie Francis Edwards
💍 1906/4589

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
19

Wellington
Wellington

3.5 years
5 years

Residence of Mrs Berriwan, Wright Street

06/6457

Helen Rosalind Edwards, mother

11 December 1906

Rev. W. J. Williams

No	925
Date of Notice	11 December 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Martin	Nellie Frances Edwards
BDM Match (87%)	William Martin Ham	Nellie Francis Edwards
	💍 1906/4589
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3.5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Berriwan, Wright Street
Folio	06/6457
Consent	Helen Rosalind Edwards, mother
Date of Certificate	11 December 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. 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).