Intentions to Marry, 1907 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840434, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1907 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1907a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1907b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1907c).

Page 009

District of Ashhurst Quarter ending 30 June 1904 Registrar I. Howard Vincent

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

11 April 1904

Richard Beaumont Robertson
Caroline Poulson
formerly wife of Francis Farley

Richard Beaumont Robertson
Caroline Poulson
💍 1907/2626

Widower
Divorced

Hotel Keeper
Domestic Duties

40
39

Bunnythorpe
Bunnythorpe

Eight months
Eight months

Registrar's Office at Ashhurst

07/2741

11 April 1904

I. Howard Vincent, Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	11 April 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Beaumont Robertson	Caroline Poulson formerly wife of Francis Farley
	💍 1907/2626
Condition	Widower	Divorced
Profession	Hotel Keeper	Domestic Duties
Age	40	39
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Bunnythorpe
Length of Residence	Eight months	Eight months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office at Ashhurst
Folio	07/2741
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1904
Officiating Minister	I. Howard Vincent, Registrar

15 April 1904

Daniel Gearin
Caroline Eliza Clevely

Daniel Gearin
Caroline Eliza Clerely
💍 1907/4521

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

26
25

Bunnythorpe
Bunnythorpe

Eight days
Eight days

Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe

07/3831

15 April 1904

Rev. H. Beggs

No	8
Date of Notice	15 April 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Gearin	Caroline Eliza Clevely
BDM Match (98%)	Daniel Gearin	Caroline Eliza Clerely
	💍 1907/4521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Bunnythorpe
Length of Residence	Eight days	Eight days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe
Folio	07/3831
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Beggs

16 April 1904

Henry Alfred Goodall
Isabella Jane Meauton

Henry Alfred Goodall
Isabella Jane Morton
💍 1907/2629

Bachelor
Spinster

Commission Agent
Domestic Duties

40
25

Bunnythorpe
Newbury Line, Bunnythorpe

Four days
Twelve months

Anglican Church at Palmerston North

07/2744

16 April 1904

Rev. G. H. Isaacson

No	9
Date of Notice	16 April 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Alfred Goodall	Isabella Jane Meauton
BDM Match (93%)	Henry Alfred Goodall	Isabella Jane Morton
	💍 1907/2629
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commission Agent	Domestic Duties
Age	40	25
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Newbury Line, Bunnythorpe
Length of Residence	Four days	Twelve months
Marriage Place	Anglican Church at Palmerston North
Folio	07/2744
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Isaacson

1 May 1904

John Sullivan
Victoria Alexandria Jansen

John Sullivan
Victoria Alexandria Jansen
💍 1907/2627

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse Trainer
Domestic Duties

31
24

Ashhurst
Ashhurst

Two years
Four days

Registrar's Office at Ashhurst

07/2742

1 May 1904

I. Howard Vincent, Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	1 May 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sullivan	Victoria Alexandria Jansen
	💍 1907/2627
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse Trainer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Ashhurst	Ashhurst
Length of Residence	Two years	Four days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office at Ashhurst
Folio	07/2742
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1904
Officiating Minister	I. Howard Vincent, Registrar

8 May 1904

Frederick Cole
Clara Mildred Maunder

Frederick Cole
Clara Mildred Maunder
💍 1907/2628

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Shunter
Domestic Duties

24
21

Ashhurst
Ashhurst

Four days
Twenty one years

Anglican Church, St. Mary's, Ashhurst

07/2745

8 May 1904

Rev. B. Coleridge Harper

No	11
Date of Notice	8 May 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Cole	Clara Mildred Maunder
	💍 1907/2628
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Ashhurst	Ashhurst
Length of Residence	Four days	Twenty one years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, St. Mary's, Ashhurst
Folio	07/2745
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 May 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Coleridge Harper

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).