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 327

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

4 January 1906

Lionel Gordon Sayby
Constance Margaret Hector

Lionel Gordon Saxby
Constance Margaret Hector
💍 1906/2089

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager

31
32

Wellington
Petone

6 days
Life

Church of England, Petone

06/663

4 January 1906

Rev J. D. Russell

No	6
Date of Notice	4 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Gordon Sayby	Constance Margaret Hector
BDM Match (97%)	Lionel Gordon Saxby	Constance Margaret Hector
	💍 1906/2089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	6 days	Life
Marriage Place	Church of England, Petone
Folio	06/663
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. D. Russell

4 January 1906

William Joseph Mountjoy
Constance Maude Mitchell

William Joseph Mountjoy
Constance Maude Mitchell
💍 1906/2036

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
6 weeks

Residence of Rev J. K. Elliott, Pirie Street, Wellington

06/700

Charles Mitchell and mother

4 January 1906

Rev J. K. Elliott

No	7
Date of Notice	4 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Mountjoy	Constance Maude Mitchell
	💍 1906/2036
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev J. K. Elliott, Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	06/700
Consent	Charles Mitchell and mother
Date of Certificate	4 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. K. Elliott

4 January 1906

Thomas Sullivan
Mary Ann Seathery

Thomas Sullivan
Mary Ann Slattery
💍 1906/2307

Richard Sullivan
Mary Ann Gilboy
💍 1906/2492

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

06/753

4 January 1906

Rev T. O'Shea

No	8
Date of Notice	4 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Sullivan	Mary Ann Seathery
BDM Match (94%)	Thomas Sullivan	Mary Ann Slattery
	💍 1906/2307
BDM Match (61%)	Richard Sullivan	Mary Ann Gilboy
	💍 1906/2492
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	06/753
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev T. O'Shea

4 January 1906

Thomas William Rose-Porter
Florence Ellen Sheppard

Thomas William Rose-Porter
Florence Ellen Sheppard
💍 1906/2088

Widower
Spinster

C.B. Judge Native Lands Court

61
45

Wellington
Petone

4 days
1 year

St. Augustine's Church, Petone

06/662

4 January 1906

Rev J. D. Russell

No	9
Date of Notice	4 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas William Rose-Porter	Florence Ellen Sheppard
	💍 1906/2088
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	C.B. Judge Native Lands Court
Age	61	45
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	4 days	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	06/662
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev J. D. Russell

4 January 1906

Edward Bevan
Elsie May Emery

Edward Bevan
Elsie May Emery
💍 1906/1879

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
2 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

06/602

4 January 1906

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	4 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Bevan	Elsie May Emery
	💍 1906/1879
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	06/602
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 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).