Intentions to Marry, 1908 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840437, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1908 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1908a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1908b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1908c).

Page 068

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar Charles C. Halliday

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

330

25 February 1908

Victor John Joseph Bice
Elizabeth Jane Miller

Victor John Joseph Bice
Elizabeth Jane Miller
💍 1908/669

Bachelor
Spinster

Enginedriver

29
20

Totara Flat
Feilding

3 days
2 years

Wesleyan Church, Feilding

08/672

Mary Elizabeth Miller, Mother

25 February 1908

Rev. J. H. White

No	330
Date of Notice	25 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor John Joseph Bice	Elizabeth Jane Miller
	💍 1908/669
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Enginedriver
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Totara Flat	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Feilding
Folio	08/672
Consent	Mary Elizabeth Miller, Mother
Date of Certificate	25 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. White

331

27 February 1908

Walter Alfred Bailey
Gouendoleyne Adeline Sandilands

Walter Alfred Bailey
Gouendoleyne Arline Sandilands
💍 1908/672

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28 years
27 years

Taonui
Feilding

28 years
24 years

Church of England, Feilding

08/675

27 February 1908

Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

No	331
Date of Notice	27 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Alfred Bailey	Gouendoleyne Adeline Sandilands
BDM Match (97%)	Walter Alfred Bailey	Gouendoleyne Arline Sandilands
	💍 1908/672
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Taonui	Feilding
Length of Residence	28 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	08/675
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

332

3 March 1908

Robert Ludlow Birch
Amy Eliza James

Robert Ludlow Birch
Amy Eliza James
💍 1908/671

Widower
Spinster

Builder

30 years
23 years

Apiti
Feilding

3 days
3 years

Church of England, Feilding

08/674

3 March 1908

Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

No	332
Date of Notice	3 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Ludlow Birch	Amy Eliza James
	💍 1908/671
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	30 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Apiti	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	08/674
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

333

3 March 1908

Patrick Kenavan
Jane Rink

Patrick Kuravan
Jane Ruik
💍 1908/1490

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

27 years
22 years

Makino
Makino

15 years
22 years

Residence of John Kenavan, Makino

08/1541

3 March 1908

Rev. John O'Meara

No	333
Date of Notice	3 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Kenavan	Jane Rink
BDM Match (82%)	Patrick Kuravan	Jane Ruik
	💍 1908/1490
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	27 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Makino	Makino
Length of Residence	15 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Kenavan, Makino
Folio	08/1541
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. John O'Meara

334

9 March 1908

Andrew Gill Galbraith
Ida Catherine McAlley

Andrew Gill Galbraith
Ida Catherine McAlley
💍 1908/701

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

20
19

Gisborne
Feilding

3 days
6 weeks

Presbyterian Manse, Feilding

08/681

George Galbraith, Father; John Gilchrist McAlley, Father

9 March 1908

Rev. Geo. Budd

No	334
Date of Notice	9 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Gill Galbraith	Ida Catherine McAlley
	💍 1908/701
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Feilding
Folio	08/681
Consent	George Galbraith, Father; John Gilchrist McAlley, Father
Date of Certificate	9 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Budd

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 1908. 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).