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 362

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

246

23 March 1907

Harved Archibald Bowen
Ada Adamson

Harold Archibald Bowen
Ada Adamson
💍 1907/1792

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

31
25

Petone
Petone

10 years
6 years

Anglican Church

07/1888

23 March 1907

Rev. J. D. Russell

No	246
Date of Notice	23 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harved Archibald Bowen	Ada Adamson
BDM Match (95%)	Harold Archibald Bowen	Ada Adamson
	💍 1907/1792
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	10 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church
Folio	07/1888
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. D. Russell

247

23 March 1907

Ernest Charles Turner
Emma Ada Shortt

Ernest Charles Turner
Emma Ada Shortt
💍 1907/1721

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
27 years

Residence of J. Shortt, Cleveland Street, Brooklyn

07/1832

23 March 1907

Rev. J. J. North

No	247
Date of Notice	23 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Charles Turner	Emma Ada Shortt
	💍 1907/1721
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Shortt, Cleveland Street, Brooklyn
Folio	07/1832
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

248

25 March 1907

Mathew Michael McGovern
Francis Lavinia Carruthers

Matthew Michael McGovern
Frances Lavinia Carruthers
💍 1907/2007

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

28
31

Vogeltown
Brooklyn

5 years
11 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street

07/2131

25 March 1907

Rev. C. J. Venning

No	248
Date of Notice	25 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mathew Michael McGovern	Francis Lavinia Carruthers
BDM Match (96%)	Matthew Michael McGovern	Frances Lavinia Carruthers
	💍 1907/2007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Vogeltown	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	5 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street
Folio	07/2131
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Venning

249

25 March 1907

George Parker
Lilian Louisa Dickinson

George Parker
Lilian Louise Dickenson
💍 1907/1922

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
1 year

St. Thomas Church, Wellington South

07/20145

25 March 1907

Rev. J. Walter

No	249
Date of Notice	25 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Parker	Lilian Louisa Dickinson
BDM Match (96%)	George Parker	Lilian Louise Dickenson
	💍 1907/1922
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Thomas Church, Wellington South
Folio	07/20145
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walter

250

25 March 1907

John Donald
Doris Pye Smith

John Donald
Doris Pye-Smith
💍 1907/663

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

25
18

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
18 years

The Terrace Congregational Church, Wellington

07/751

Reginald Pye Smith (Father)

25 March 1907

Rev. J. R. Glasson

No	250
Date of Notice	25 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Donald	Doris Pye Smith
BDM Match (97%)	John Donald	Doris Pye-Smith
	💍 1907/663
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	18 years
Marriage Place	The Terrace Congregational Church, Wellington
Folio	07/751
Consent	Reginald Pye Smith (Father)
Date of Certificate	25 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Glasson

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).