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 341

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

29 January 1906

Ernest William Hunt
Annie Ethel Cooper

Ernest William Hunt
Annie Ethel Cooper
💍 1906/2160

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
19 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

06/779

29 January 1906

Rev P. W. Fairclough

No	76
Date of Notice	29 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Hunt	Annie Ethel Cooper
	💍 1906/2160
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	06/779
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev P. W. Fairclough

29 January 1906

John Topel
Jennette Esther Hoffer

John Vogel
Jannetta Esther Hoffer
💍 1906/1946

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

33
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

Jewish Synagogue Terrace Wellington

06/808

Solomon Hoffer, Father

29 January 1906

Rev H. Tom Traveron

No	77
Date of Notice	29 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Topel	Jennette Esther Hoffer
BDM Match (85%)	John Vogel	Jannetta Esther Hoffer
	💍 1906/1946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	Jewish Synagogue Terrace Wellington
Folio	06/808
Consent	Solomon Hoffer, Father
Date of Certificate	29 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev H. Tom Traveron

29 January 1906

James Percival Maddock
Elizabeth Susan Johns

James Percival Maddock
Elizabeth Susan Johns
💍 1906/2310

Bachelor
Spinster

Electric Light Linesman

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
2 months

Residence of Mr Maddock 43 Martin Square Wellington

06/732

Thomas Johns, Father

29 January 1906

Rev W. Frier

No	78
Date of Notice	29 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Percival Maddock	Elizabeth Susan Johns
	💍 1906/2310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electric Light Linesman
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Maddock 43 Martin Square Wellington
Folio	06/732
Consent	Thomas Johns, Father
Date of Certificate	29 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Frier

29 January 1906

Neil William Breen
Jane Annie McLaughlin

Neil William Breen
Jane Ann McLaughlan
💍 1906/2147

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
33

Petone
Lower Hutt

2 years
3 years

Catholic Church Lower Hutt

06/767

29 January 1906

Rev J. Land

No	79
Date of Notice	29 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neil William Breen	Jane Annie McLaughlin
BDM Match (93%)	Neil William Breen	Jane Ann McLaughlan
	💍 1906/2147
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Petone	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church Lower Hutt
Folio	06/767
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Land

30 January 1906

Willie Spurgeon Stindt
Marion Helen Comins

Willie Spurgeon Studd
Marion Helen Comins
💍 1906/1979

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman

29
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 weeks
2 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

06/625

30 January 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	80
Date of Notice	30 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Willie Spurgeon Stindt	Marion Helen Comins
BDM Match (93%)	Willie Spurgeon Studd	Marion Helen Comins
	💍 1906/1979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	06/625
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, 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).