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 503

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1907 Registrar G. Hodgkinson

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

896

21 November 1907

James Ernest Francis Backler
Kezia Shaw

James Ernest Francis
Kezia Shaw
💍 1907/7268

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

32
24

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
15 years

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South

07/6908

21 November 1907

Rev. J. Waeter

No	896
Date of Notice	21 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Ernest Francis Backler	Kezia Shaw
BDM Match (86%)	James Ernest Francis	Kezia Shaw
	💍 1907/7268
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington South
Folio	07/6908
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Waeter

897

21 November 1907

Walter Peter Fringle Backler
Thirza Mildred Caverhill

Walter Peter Pringle
Thirza Mildred Caverhill
💍 1907/6398

Bachelor
Spinster

Seller

38
27

Lower Hutt
Petone

life
life

Presbyterian Church, Petone

07/6952

21 November 1907

Rev. A. Thomson

No	897
Date of Notice	21 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Peter Fringle Backler	Thirza Mildred Caverhill
BDM Match (84%)	Walter Peter Pringle	Thirza Mildred Caverhill
	💍 1907/6398
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seller
Age	38	27
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	life	life
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Petone
Folio	07/6952
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Thomson

898

22 November 1907

Cecil Wemyss Bear
Jessie Hilda Evans

Cecil Wemyss Bear
Jessie Hilda Evans
💍 1907/6402

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

28
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
26 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

07/6938

22 November 1907

Rev. G. F. Davys

No	898
Date of Notice	22 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Wemyss Bear	Jessie Hilda Evans
	💍 1907/6402
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	07/6938
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. F. Davys

899

22 November 1907

William George Marsh
Elizabeth Hannah Rowan

William George Marsh
Elizabeth Hannah Rowan
💍 1907/7530

Widower
Spinster

Gas Fitter

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 year

St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church, Island Bay

07/6915

22 November 1907

Rev. J. S. Herbert

No	899
Date of Notice	22 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Marsh	Elizabeth Hannah Rowan
	💍 1907/7530
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Gas Fitter
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church, Island Bay
Folio	07/6915
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. S. Herbert

900

22 November 1907

Albert Edward Frost
Jane Harriet Wale

Albert Edward Ffrost
Jane Harriet Wale
💍 1907/7300

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Signalman

27
27

Ngahauranga
Wellington

3 months
13 years

St. Mark's Church

07/6917

22 November 1907

Rev. J. G. S. Bartell

No	900
Date of Notice	22 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Frost	Jane Harriet Wale
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Edward Ffrost	Jane Harriet Wale
	💍 1907/7300
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Signalman
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Ngahauranga	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	13 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church
Folio	07/6917
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. S. Bartell

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).