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 331

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

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

31 January 1907

Cecil Walter Rees
Agnes Matilda McDonald

Cecil Walter Rees
Agnes Matilda McDowall
💍 1907/2852

Widower
Spinster

Dredging Expert

45
39

Hutt
Hutt

5 weeks
8 months

St Marks Church, Wellington

07/773

31 January 1907

Rev. G. S. Bartlett

No	96
Date of Notice	31 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Walter Rees	Agnes Matilda McDonald
BDM Match (95%)	Cecil Walter Rees	Agnes Matilda McDowall
	💍 1907/2852
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Dredging Expert
Age	45	39
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	5 weeks	8 months
Marriage Place	St Marks Church, Wellington
Folio	07/773
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Bartlett

1 February 1907

Patrick McGurk
Catherine Branner

Patrick McGurk
Catherine Brannen
💍 1907/766

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

38
28

Wellington
Wellington

8 days
3 weeks

St Josephs Church, Wellington

07/833

1 February 1907

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	97
Date of Notice	1 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick McGurk	Catherine Branner
BDM Match (97%)	Patrick McGurk	Catherine Brannen
	💍 1907/766
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Josephs Church, Wellington
Folio	07/833
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

2 February 1907

John Sanderson
Ada Lena Thomas

John Sanderson
Ada Lena Thomas
💍 1907/824

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Shunter

35
28

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
4 weeks

Registrars Office, Wellington

07/917

2 February 1907

G. S. Hoagrius, Deputy Registrar

No	98
Date of Notice	2 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sanderson	Ada Lena Thomas
	💍 1907/824
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	4 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	07/917
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1907
Officiating Minister	G. S. Hoagrius, Deputy Registrar

2 February 1907

William Blundell Strong
Eloie Edith Kate Redstone

William Blundell Strong
Elsie Edith Kate Redstone
💍 1907/759

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

34
28

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
12 years

Wesley Church, Tarana Street, Wellington

07/850

2 February 1907

Rev. H. B. Redstone

No	99
Date of Notice	2 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Blundell Strong	Eloie Edith Kate Redstone
BDM Match (98%)	William Blundell Strong	Elsie Edith Kate Redstone
	💍 1907/759
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Tarana Street, Wellington
Folio	07/850
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Redstone

100

2 February 1907

Cecil Colston Hooper
Eva Annie Daniells

Cecil Colston Hooper
Eva Annie Daniells
💍 1907/660

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
16 years

Residence of Mrs Daniells, 7 Kewyn Terrace, Wellington

07/748

2 February 1907

Rev. T. K. Ewen

No	100
Date of Notice	2 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Colston Hooper	Eva Annie Daniells
	💍 1907/660
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	16 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Daniells, 7 Kewyn Terrace, Wellington
Folio	07/748
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. K. Ewen

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).