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 360

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

236

22 March 1907

William Frederick Cribb
Annie Sarah Wesley Rowe

William Frederick Cribb
Annie Sarah Wesley Rowe
💍 1907/938

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

31
25

Wellington
Springlands

3 months
12 years

Residence of Mr. Rowe, Springlands

07/1009

22 March 1907

Archdeacon J. S. Grace

No	236
Date of Notice	22 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Cribb	Annie Sarah Wesley Rowe
	💍 1907/938
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Springlands
Length of Residence	3 months	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Rowe, Springlands
Folio	07/1009
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon J. S. Grace

237

22 March 1907

Joseph Franklin Maxwell
Sarah Morrison

Joseph Franklin
Sarah Maxwell Morrison
💍 1907/733

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

34
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
31 years

Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street

07/824

22 March 1907

Rev. F. W. Fairclough

No	237
Date of Notice	22 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Franklin Maxwell	Sarah Morrison
BDM Match (64%)	Joseph Franklin	Sarah Maxwell Morrison
	💍 1907/733
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street
Folio	07/824
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Fairclough

238

22 March 1907

Henry Brown Murray
Rose Anna Forrest

Henry Brown Murray
Rose Anna Forrest
💍 1907/860

Widower
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

45
25

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
13 years

Registrar's Office

07/952

22 March 1907

Deputy Registrar

No	238
Date of Notice	22 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Brown Murray	Rose Anna Forrest
	💍 1907/860
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	45	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	07/952
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

239

22 March 1907

Hubert Alexander Mawson
Sarah Thompson

Herbert Alexander Mawson
Sarah Thompson
💍 1907/691

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

31
31

Island Bay
Wellington

6 years
3 years

Congregational Church, Courtenay Place

07/780

22 March 1907

Rev. H. Aspland

No	239
Date of Notice	22 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Alexander Mawson	Sarah Thompson
BDM Match (96%)	Herbert Alexander Mawson	Sarah Thompson
	💍 1907/691
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Island Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Courtenay Place
Folio	07/780
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Aspland

240

22 March 1907

John F. Burt Wood
Gladys Henry

John Burt Wood
Gladys Henry
💍 1907/788

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder & Contractor

27
19

Lower Hutt
Petone

27 years
19 years

St. David's Church

07/856

William Gilbert Henry (Father)

22 March 1907

Rev. James Paterson

No	240
Date of Notice	22 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John F. Burt Wood	Gladys Henry
BDM Match (91%)	John Burt Wood	Gladys Henry
	💍 1907/788
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder & Contractor
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	27 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church
Folio	07/856
Consent	William Gilbert Henry (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

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).