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 083

District of Greytown Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar Vernon Roberts

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

811

14 January 1907

Douglas Charles Humphrey
Dora Kathleen Helen Trotman

Douglas Charles Humphrey
Dora Kathleen Helen Trotman
💍 1907/507

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic Duties

22
20

Greytown
Greytown

15 months
from Greytown birth

St. Luke's Church

07/584

Edward Henry Trotman

16 January 1907

E. Thos. Wynne Bond, Anglican

No	811
Date of Notice	14 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Charles Humphrey	Dora Kathleen Helen Trotman
	💍 1907/507
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic Duties
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	15 months	from Greytown birth
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church
Folio	07/584
Consent	Edward Henry Trotman
Date of Certificate	16 January 1907
Officiating Minister	E. Thos. Wynne Bond, Anglican

812

18 January 1907

Jesse Bertie Hall
Ellen Lucy Williams

Jesse Bertie Hall
Ellen Lucy Williams
💍 1907/499

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Domestic

27
25

Greytown
Greytown

3 days
9 years

St. Luke's Church

07/583

18 January 1907

E. Thos. Wynne Bond, Anglican

No	812
Date of Notice	18 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jesse Bertie Hall	Ellen Lucy Williams
	💍 1907/499
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Domestic
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	3 days	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church
Folio	07/583
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1907
Officiating Minister	E. Thos. Wynne Bond, Anglican

813

26 January 1907

Jack Hastings
Fanny Goode

Jack Hastings
Fanny Goode
💍 1907/498

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
20

Greytown
Greytown

3 years
from birth

Presbyterian Church

07/582

Louisa Goode

28 January 1907

Jas. A. Brown, Presbyterian

No	813
Date of Notice	26 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jack Hastings	Fanny Goode
	💍 1907/498
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	3 years	from birth
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	07/582
Consent	Louisa Goode
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Jas. A. Brown, Presbyterian

814

6 February 1907

James Henry Colquhoun
Margaret Ann Morton

James Henry Colquhoun
Margaret Ann Morton
💍 1907/526

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker
Dressmaker

30
35

Greytown
Thames

Two Months

Residence of M.C. Madsen, Greytown

07/587

6 February 1907

B. H. Ginger, Wesleyan

No	814
Date of Notice	6 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Colquhoun	Margaret Ann Morton
	💍 1907/526
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Dressmaker
Age	30	35
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Thames
Length of Residence	Two Months
Marriage Place	Residence of M.C. Madsen, Greytown
Folio	07/587
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1907
Officiating Minister	B. H. Ginger, Wesleyan

815

13 February 1907

Alexander Pringle Speedy
Catherine Elizabeth Nickie

Alexander Pringle Speedy
Catherine Elizabeth Wilkie
💍 1907/525

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
32

Greytown
Greytown

3 days
one month

Residence of Mr. Robinson, near Hamilton

07/586

13 February 1907

Joseph Newman Ruttle, Wesleyan

No	815
Date of Notice	13 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Pringle Speedy	Catherine Elizabeth Nickie
BDM Match (96%)	Alexander Pringle Speedy	Catherine Elizabeth Wilkie
	💍 1907/525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	32
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	3 days	one month
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Robinson, near Hamilton
Folio	07/586
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Joseph Newman Ruttle, Wesleyan

816

19 March 1907

Herbert Albert Hawke
Edith Eliza Roberts

Herbert Albert Hawke
Edith Eliza Roberts
💍 1907/518

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Teacher of Music and Piano Painting

37
32

Puke Rawa
Greytown

20 years
5 years

St. Luke's Church

07/585

19 March 1907

E. Thos. Wynne Bond, Anglican

No	816
Date of Notice	19 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Albert Hawke	Edith Eliza Roberts
	💍 1907/518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Teacher of Music and Piano Painting
Age	37	32
Dwelling Place	Puke Rawa	Greytown
Length of Residence	20 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church
Folio	07/585
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1907
Officiating Minister	E. Thos. Wynne Bond, 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).