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 270

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar Chas E. Hylton

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

William John Foley
Annie Murphy

William John Foley
Annie Murphy
💍 1907/1771

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist
Waitress

23
23

Wanganui
Wanganui

23 years
9 months

Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

07/1891

28 January 1907

M. Grogan, Roman Catholic

No	18
Date of Notice	28 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Foley	Annie Murphy
	💍 1907/1771
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist	Waitress
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	23 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	07/1891
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1907
Officiating Minister	M. Grogan, Roman Catholic

29 January 1907

Thomas Kendall
Charlotte Rose Evans

Thomas Kendall
Charlotte Rose Evans
💍 1907/1961

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic Help

28
34

Wanganui
Wanganui

3 days
12 months

St. John's Church of England, Wanganui

07/2084

29 January 1907

H. J. Deane, Church of England

No	19
Date of Notice	29 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Kendall	Charlotte Rose Evans
	💍 1907/1961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic Help
Age	28	34
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 days	12 months
Marriage Place	St. John's Church of England, Wanganui
Folio	07/2084
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1907
Officiating Minister	H. J. Deane, Church of England

30 January 1907

John Robert Perry
Gertrude Henderson Armstrong

John Robert Perry
Gertrude Henderson Armstrong
💍 1907/873

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

26
24

Wanganui
Wanganui

3 days
24 years

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui

07/967

30 January 1907

R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	20
Date of Notice	30 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robert Perry	Gertrude Henderson Armstrong
	💍 1907/873
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Wanganui
Folio	07/967
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1907
Officiating Minister	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian

1 February 1907

John Henry Hogg
Mary Ann Harnish

John Henry Hogg
Mary Ann Harmish
💍 1907/623

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Help

27
28

Wanganui
Matarawa

15 years
25 years

Residence of Miss Hogg, Matarawa

07/710

1 February 1907

A. Morton, Presbyterian

No	21
Date of Notice	1 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Hogg	Mary Ann Harnish
BDM Match (97%)	John Henry Hogg	Mary Ann Harmish
	💍 1907/623
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Help
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Matarawa
Length of Residence	15 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Hogg, Matarawa
Folio	07/710
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1907
Officiating Minister	A. Morton, Presbyterian

2 February 1907

John Alexander Thomson
Margaret Elliot Byres

John Alexander Thomson
Margaret Elliot Byres
💍 1907/635

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

30
30

Wanganui
Wanganui

13 years
30 years

Residence of Mr. G. Byres, Beee St, Wanganui

07/723

2 February 1907

J. M. Thomson, Presbyterian

No	22
Date of Notice	2 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander Thomson	Margaret Elliot Byres
	💍 1907/635
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	13 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G. Byres, Beee St, Wanganui
Folio	07/723
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1907
Officiating Minister	J. M. Thomson, Presbyterian

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).