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 400

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

345

25 April 1906

Oliver Matthews Fraser
Mabel Isabel Simmonds

Oliver Matthew Fraser
Mabel Isabel Simmonds
💍 1906/1115

Bachelor
Spinster

Waiter

30
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

St. James Manse, Wellington South

06/2460

25 April 1906

Rev W. Shirer

No	345
Date of Notice	25 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver Matthews Fraser	Mabel Isabel Simmonds
BDM Match (98%)	Oliver Matthew Fraser	Mabel Isabel Simmonds
	💍 1906/1115
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waiter
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. James Manse, Wellington South
Folio	06/2460
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Shirer

346

26 April 1906

Albert Ham Paterson
Ida Clarissa Paterson

Albert Ham
Ida Clarissa Paterson
💍 1906/1116

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

23
27

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
5 years

Residence of Mr. A. B. Paterson, 3a Owen Street, Wellington

06/2261

26 April 1906

Rev W. Shirer

No	346
Date of Notice	26 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Ham Paterson	Ida Clarissa Paterson
BDM Match (76%)	Albert Ham	Ida Clarissa Paterson
	💍 1906/1116
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. A. B. Paterson, 3a Owen Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2261
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Shirer

347

26 April 1906

William Henry Hooper
Jessica Louisa Lawford

William Henry Hooper
Jessica Louisa Lawford
💍 1906/1075

Bachelor
Widow

Carpenter, Joiner

33
32

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

06/2397

26 April 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	347
Date of Notice	26 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Hooper	Jessica Louisa Lawford
	💍 1906/1075
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Carpenter, Joiner
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2397
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

348

27 April 1906

Anthony Groves Strimpton
Ellen Spanden

Anthony Graves Shrimpton
Ellen Spurden
💍 1906/1105

Bachelor
Spinster

Watchmaker

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 days

St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington

06/2449

27 April 1906

Rev R. Coffey

No	348
Date of Notice	27 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Anthony Groves Strimpton	Ellen Spanden
BDM Match (88%)	Anthony Graves Shrimpton	Ellen Spurden
	💍 1906/1105
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Watchmaker
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington
Folio	06/2449
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev R. Coffey

349

27 April 1906

Bernard John Dudley
Constance Ethel Master

Bernard John Dudley
Constance Ethel Master
💍 1906/3336

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

31
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
5 days

St. Pauls Church, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

06/3275

27 April 1906

Rev T. H. Sprott

No	349
Date of Notice	27 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard John Dudley	Constance Ethel Master
	💍 1906/3336
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	06/3275
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev T. H. Sprott

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).