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 333

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar G. S. Hoagrius

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

106

5 February 1907

Walter Alexander Roberts
Ellen Mary Pointow

Walter Alexander Roberts
Ellen Mary Pointon
💍 1907/700

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
23 years

St. James Church

07/764

5 February 1907

Rev. W. Shirer

No	106
Date of Notice	5 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Alexander Roberts	Ellen Mary Pointow
BDM Match (97%)	Walter Alexander Roberts	Ellen Mary Pointon
	💍 1907/700
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church
Folio	07/764
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

107

5 February 1907

Charles Frankland Book
Hannah Dennehy

Charles Frankland Cook
Hannah Dennehy
💍 1907/768

Bachelor
Spinster

Wine Merchant

40
34

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
6 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

07/835

5 February 1907

Rev. F. O'Shea

No	107
Date of Notice	5 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frankland Book	Hannah Dennehy
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Frankland Cook	Hannah Dennehy
	💍 1907/768
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wine Merchant
Age	40	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	07/835
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. O'Shea

108

5 February 1907

Walter White
Ada Mahala Cunliffe

Walter White
Ada Mahala Cunliffe
💍 1907/825

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
19

Taiha
Taiha

13 years
Life

Registrars Office, Wellington

07/918

James Cunliffe (father)

5 February 1907

G. S. Hoagrius, Deputy Registrar

No	108
Date of Notice	5 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter White	Ada Mahala Cunliffe
	💍 1907/825
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Taiha	Taiha
Length of Residence	13 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	07/918
Consent	James Cunliffe (father)
Date of Certificate	5 February 1907
Officiating Minister	G. S. Hoagrius, Deputy Registrar

109

6 February 1907

Michael Nicholas Collittow
Rose Ann Smyth

Michael Nicholas Clifton
Rose Ann Smyth
💍 1907/750

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
34

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
1 day

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

07/842

6 February 1907

Rev. F. O'Shea

No	109
Date of Notice	6 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Nicholas Collittow	Rose Ann Smyth
BDM Match (92%)	Michael Nicholas Clifton	Rose Ann Smyth
	💍 1907/750
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	1 day
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	07/842
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. O'Shea

110

6 February 1907

Francis Diamond
Margaret Rebecca Webb

Francis Diamond
Margaret Rebecca Webb
💍 1907/739

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

33
38

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
9 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

07/816

6 February 1907

Rev. W. J. Lewis

No	110
Date of Notice	6 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Diamond	Margaret Rebecca Webb
	💍 1907/739
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	33	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	07/816
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Lewis

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).