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 350

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

186

11 March 1907

Alfred James Shilling
Ellenor Mexted

Alfred James Shilling
Ellenor Mexted
💍 1907/848

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

29
31

Wellington
Wellington

29 years
4 days

Registrars Office, Wellington

07/941

11 March 1907

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	186
Date of Notice	11 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Shilling	Ellenor Mexted
	💍 1907/848
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	29 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	07/941
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1907
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

187

11 March 1907

William Arthur Andrews
Agnes Thompson

William Arthur Andrews
Agnes Thompson
💍 1907/681

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

22
23

Wellington
Wellington

22 years
12 years

Residence of Mrs Scott, 23 Broadway Terrace, Wellington

07/769

11 March 1907

Rev. W. W. Shirer

No	187
Date of Notice	11 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Andrews	Agnes Thompson
	💍 1907/681
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Scott, 23 Broadway Terrace, Wellington
Folio	07/769
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Shirer

188

11 March 1907

Frank Hanbury Godwin
Mary Doupe

Frank Stansbury Godwin
Mary Doupe
💍 1907/671

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

34
31

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
7 years

Wesley Parsonage, Taranaki Street, Wellington

07/758

11 March 1907

Rev. C. Porter

No	188
Date of Notice	11 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Hanbury Godwin	Mary Doupe
BDM Match (93%)	Frank Stansbury Godwin	Mary Doupe
	💍 1907/671
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Parsonage, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	07/758
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Porter

189

11 March 1907

Henry Leslie Freeling Wilson
Mary Eveline Somerville

Henry Leslie Freeling Wilson
Mary Eveline Somerville
💍 1907/8390

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

37
30

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
16 days

St Hilda's Churchroom, Island Bay, Wellington

07/787

11 March 1907

Rev. John Wacker

No	189
Date of Notice	11 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Leslie Freeling Wilson	Mary Eveline Somerville
	💍 1907/8390
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	16 days
Marriage Place	St Hilda's Churchroom, Island Bay, Wellington
Folio	07/787
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Wacker

190

11 March 1907

Colin McKenzie
Lavinia Kak Hunt

Colin McKenzie
Lavinia Kate Hunt
💍 1907/742

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

24
20

Wellington
Kilbirnie

24 years
2 years

Anglican Church, Kilbirnie

07/819

Robert Hunt (father)

11 March 1907

Rev. J. A. M. Hickle

No	190
Date of Notice	11 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colin McKenzie	Lavinia Kak Hunt
BDM Match (94%)	Colin McKenzie	Lavinia Kate Hunt
	💍 1907/742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	24 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	07/819
Consent	Robert Hunt (father)
Date of Certificate	11 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. M. Hickle

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).