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 075

District of Foxton Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar A. D. Clemett

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 1907

John Windsor
Maria Elizabeth Davis

John Windsor
Maria Elizabeth Davis
💍 1907/494

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Domestic Duties

44
34

Foxton
Foxton

6 months
3 weeks

Office of the Registrar, Foxton

07/577

4 January 1907

A. D. Clemett, Registrar

No	90
Date of Notice	4 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Windsor	Maria Elizabeth Davis
	💍 1907/494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Domestic Duties
Age	44	34
Dwelling Place	Foxton	Foxton
Length of Residence	6 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Foxton
Folio	07/577
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1907
Officiating Minister	A. D. Clemett, Registrar

15 January 1907

Bert Thomas Ralph
Sarah Jane Coley

Bert Thomas Ralph
Sarah Jane Coley
💍 1907/496

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

22
19

Foxton
Foxton

12 months
19 years

Private Residence of Mrs Rebecca Coley, Foxton

07/580

E. J. Coley

15 January 1907

Rev. H. J. Wilson, Anglican

No	91
Date of Notice	15 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bert Thomas Ralph	Sarah Jane Coley
	💍 1907/496
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Foxton	Foxton
Length of Residence	12 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Private Residence of Mrs Rebecca Coley, Foxton
Folio	07/580
Consent	E. J. Coley
Date of Certificate	15 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Wilson, Anglican

4 February 1907

Herbert James Starley Rickard
Isabel Anderson Laing

Herbert James Stanley Rickard
Isabel Henderson Laing
💍 1907/1785

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist
Domestic Duties

26 years
23 years

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Foxton

07/1904

4 February 1907

Rev. Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian

No	92
Date of Notice	4 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert James Starley Rickard	Isabel Anderson Laing
BDM Match (94%)	Herbert James Stanley Rickard	Isabel Henderson Laing
	💍 1907/1785
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist	Domestic Duties
Age	26 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Foxton
Folio	07/1904
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian

20 March 1907

John Ralph Brood
Frances Margaret Frew

John Rapley Broad
Frances Margaret Prew
💍 1907/2849

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

22
18

Foxton
Foxton

4 years
5 years

Office of the Registrar, Foxton

07/578

Emily Frew

20 March 1907

A. D. Clemett, Registrar

No	93
Date of Notice	20 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ralph Brood	Frances Margaret Frew
BDM Match (86%)	John Rapley Broad	Frances Margaret Prew
	💍 1907/2849
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Foxton	Foxton
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Foxton
Folio	07/578
Consent	Emily Frew
Date of Certificate	20 March 1907
Officiating Minister	A. D. Clemett, Registrar

30 March 1907

Leonard James Farrie
Ruby Vanessa Fraser

Leonard John Furrie
Ruby Vanessa Fraser
💍 1907/4840

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher
Domestic Duties

25
24

Eltham, NZ
Foxton

11 months
12 years

All Saints Church of England, Foxton

07/4279

30 March 1907

Rev. H. J. Wilson, Anglican

No	94
Date of Notice	30 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard James Farrie	Ruby Vanessa Fraser
BDM Match (88%)	Leonard John Furrie	Ruby Vanessa Fraser
	💍 1907/4840
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher	Domestic Duties
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Eltham, NZ	Foxton
Length of Residence	11 months	12 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England, Foxton
Folio	07/4279
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Wilson, Anglican

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).