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 387

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1907 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

356

24 April 1907

Walter Gore
Mary Stephenson

Walter Gore
Mary Josephine Stephenson
💍 1907/3071

Widower
Widow

Storekeeper, Department of Public Health

54
42

Petone
Petone

21 years
30 years

Roman Catholic Church, Petone

07/3104

24 April 1907

Rev. F. G. Maples

No	356
Date of Notice	24 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Gore	Mary Stephenson
BDM Match (80%)	Walter Gore	Mary Josephine Stephenson
	💍 1907/3071
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Storekeeper, Department of Public Health
Age	54	42
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	21 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Petone
Folio	07/3104
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Maples

357

24 April 1907

William James Johnstone
Mary Dorothea Purdie

William James Johnstone
Mary Dorothea Burke
💍 1907/2986

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

13 months
12 months

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

07/2992

24 April 1907

Rev. C. J. Venning

No	357
Date of Notice	24 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Johnstone	Mary Dorothea Purdie
BDM Match (93%)	William James Johnstone	Mary Dorothea Burke
	💍 1907/2986
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 months	12 months
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	07/2992
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Venning

358

24 April 1907

John Thomas Jones
Charlotte Blanche Wilkins

John Thomas Jones
Charlotte Blanche Wilkins
💍 1907/2979

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

34
24

Lower Hutt
Silverstream

5 years
22 years

St. John's Church, Trentham

07/2986

24 April 1907

Rev. C. J. Smith

No	358
Date of Notice	24 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomas Jones	Charlotte Blanche Wilkins
	💍 1907/2979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Silverstream
Length of Residence	5 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Trentham
Folio	07/2986
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Smith

359

24 April 1907

Harry Stanway George
Margaret Killy

Harry Stanway George
Margaret Riely
💍 1907/3044

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 months

Church of the Sacred Heart, Wellington

07/3052

24 April 1907

Rev. W. J. Lewis

No	359
Date of Notice	24 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Stanway George	Margaret Killy
BDM Match (93%)	Harry Stanway George	Margaret Riely
	💍 1907/3044
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Wellington
Folio	07/3052
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Lewis

360

25 April 1907

Godfrey Lincoln Lee
Mary Catherine Allan

Godfrey Lincoln Lee
Mary Catherine Allan
💍 1907/3070

Bachelor
Spinster

Law Clerk

23
43

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

14 years
4 years

Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

07/3103

25 April 1907

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	360
Date of Notice	25 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Godfrey Lincoln Lee	Mary Catherine Allan
	💍 1907/3070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law Clerk
Age	23	43
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	14 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	07/3103
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 April 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

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).