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 424

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1906 Registrar G. Stoddart

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

466

23 June 1906

Harold John Rule
Edith Eleanor Tonking

Harold John Rule
Edith Eleanor Tonking
💍 1906/3344

Bachelor
Widow

Engineer

29
31

Wellington
Wellington

1 1/2 years
2 years

St. Pauls pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

06/3282

23 June 1906

Rev T. A. Grott

No	466
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold John Rule	Edith Eleanor Tonking
	💍 1906/3344
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Engineer
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls pro Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	06/3282
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev T. A. Grott

467

23 June 1906

James McKnight Fergus
Antonette Fanny Sarah Hansen

James McKnight Fergus
Antoinette Fanny Sarah Hansen
💍 1906/2820

Bachelor
Spinster

Messenger

42
40

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
9 months

Residence of Mr. Parker, 14 Brook Street, Wellington

06/2570

23 June 1906

Rev J. Gibson Smith

No	467
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McKnight Fergus	Antonette Fanny Sarah Hansen
BDM Match (98%)	James McKnight Fergus	Antoinette Fanny Sarah Hansen
	💍 1906/2820
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Messenger
Age	42	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Parker, 14 Brook Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2570
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Gibson Smith

468

23 June 1906

George Victor Beck
Edith Slater

George Victor Beck
Edith Slater
💍 1906/1125

Bachelor
Spinster

Advertising Agent

39
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
1 1/2 years

St. James Church Manse, Adelaide Road, Wellington

06/2469

23 June 1906

Rev W. Frier

No	468
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Victor Beck	Edith Slater
	💍 1906/1125
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Advertising Agent
Age	39	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church Manse, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	06/2469
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Frier

469

25 June 1906

Arthur Hobson Statham
Ethel Hadfield Statham

Arthur Hobson
Ethel Hadfield Statham
💍 1906/5370

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

26
29

Wellington
Dunedin

5 years
2 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin

06/5718

25 June 1906

Rev Dean W. A. R. Fitchett, D.D.

No	469
Date of Notice	25 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Hobson Statham	Ethel Hadfield Statham
BDM Match (81%)	Arthur Hobson	Ethel Hadfield Statham
	💍 1906/5370
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	06/5718
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev Dean W. A. R. Fitchett, D.D.

470

25 June 1906

Leonard Ballard Bradstock
Lizzie Avison

Leonard Ballard Bradstock
Lizzie Avison
💍 1906/1149

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster

27
32

Wellington
Petone

3 days
3 weeks

St. Davids Church, Petone

06/2476

25 June 1906

Rev A. Thomson

No	470
Date of Notice	25 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Ballard Bradstock	Lizzie Avison
	💍 1906/1149
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Davids Church, Petone
Folio	06/2476
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Thomson

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).