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 323

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

17 January 1907

Edwin Houghton
Anne Margaret Dellow

Edwin Houghton
Anne Margaret Dellow
💍 1907/2841

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

30
22

Wellington
Wellington

30 years
1 year

Registrar's Office, Wellington

07/907

17 January 1907

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	56
Date of Notice	17 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Houghton	Anne Margaret Dellow
	💍 1907/2841
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	07/907
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1907
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

18 January 1907

Frank Sydney John Brady
Edith Jane Oliver

Frank Sydney John Brady
Edith Jane Oliver
💍 1907/784

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
14 years

Residence of Mrs Donovan, Clyde Quay, Wellington

07/875

18 January 1907

Rev. J. Paterson

No	57
Date of Notice	18 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Sydney John Brady	Edith Jane Oliver
	💍 1907/784
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Donovan, Clyde Quay, Wellington
Folio	07/875
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

18 January 1907

Ernest Birrell
Mary Ann Kuoy

Ernest Birrell
Mary Ann Knox
💍 1907/2988

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
24

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
15 days

Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington

07/2969

18 January 1907

Rev. J. Dawson

No	58
Date of Notice	18 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Birrell	Mary Ann Kuoy
BDM Match (92%)	Ernest Birrell	Mary Ann Knox
	💍 1907/2988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	15 days
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	07/2969
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

18 January 1907

Roderick Macdonald
Ellen Bottom

Roderick MacDonald
Ellen Bottom
💍 1907/777

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
2 years

Kent Terrace, 25 Pirie Street, Wellington

07/869

18 January 1907

Rev. G. K. Elliott

No	59
Date of Notice	18 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roderick Macdonald	Ellen Bottom
BDM Match (97%)	Roderick MacDonald	Ellen Bottom
	💍 1907/777
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace, 25 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	07/869
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Elliott

18 January 1907

Henry Ewing Constable
Grace Churchward

Henry Ewing Constable
Grace Churchward
💍 1907/838

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouse Manager

32
26

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
6 weeks

Registrar's Office, Wellington

07/908

18 January 1907

G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

No	60
Date of Notice	18 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Ewing Constable	Grace Churchward
	💍 1907/838
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouse Manager
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	07/908
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1907
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Deputy Registrar

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).