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 327

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar G. H. 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

28 January 1907

Arthur Henry O'Connor
Teresa O'Brien

Arthur Henry McConnon
Teresa O'Brien
💍 1907/753

Bachelor
Spinster

Jockey

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
8 days

Ranau Catholic Church, Wellington South

07/845

28 January 1907

Rev. J. Ainsworth

No	76
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Henry O'Connor	Teresa O'Brien
BDM Match (93%)	Arthur Henry McConnon	Teresa O'Brien
	💍 1907/753
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jockey
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	8 days
Marriage Place	Ranau Catholic Church, Wellington South
Folio	07/845
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Ainsworth

28 January 1907

Walter Edward Dryden
Grace Dora Styles

Walter Edward Dryden
Grace Dora Styles
💍 1907/656

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

52 years
1.5 years

Residence of Mr. Martin, 35 South Road, Wellington

07/744

28 January 1907

Rev. W. Shirer

No	77
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Edward Dryden	Grace Dora Styles
	💍 1907/656
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	52 years	1.5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Martin, 35 South Road, Wellington
Folio	07/744
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

28 January 1907

Alfred John Wakeford
Mary Elizabeth Clynes

Alfred John Wakefield
Mary Elizabeth Clynes
💍 1907/655

Divorced (decree absolute 6 April 1906)
Spinster

Road Foreman

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

32 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. Yates, 14 Adelaide Road, Wellington

07/743

28 January 1907

Rev. W. Shirer

No	78
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred John Wakeford	Mary Elizabeth Clynes
BDM Match (93%)	Alfred John Wakefield	Mary Elizabeth Clynes
	💍 1907/655
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute 6 April 1906)	Spinster
Profession	Road Foreman
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	32 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Yates, 14 Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	07/743
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

28 January 1907

Frank Walter George Irving
Jane Irving

Frank Walter George
Jane Irving
💍 1907/842

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

07/912

28 January 1907

G. H. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	79
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Walter George Irving	Jane Irving
BDM Match (87%)	Frank Walter George	Jane Irving
	💍 1907/842
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	07/912
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	G. H. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

28 January 1907

Piercy Powell
Mabel Zealandia Johns

Percy Powell
Mabel Zealandia Johns
💍 1907/686

Bachelor
Spinster

Bread Carter

28
18

Petone
Petone

1.5 years
10 months

Baptist Church, Petone

07/776

Thomas Johns, Father

28 January 1907

Rev. J. Spottiswoode

No	80
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Piercy Powell	Mabel Zealandia Johns
BDM Match (96%)	Percy Powell	Mabel Zealandia Johns
	💍 1907/686
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bread Carter
Age	28	18
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	1.5 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Petone
Folio	07/776
Consent	Thomas Johns, Father
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Spottiswoode

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).