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 150

District of Masterton Quarter ending 30 September 1908 Registrar Henry Howard Cork

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

2 July 1908

Albert Victor Faulknor
Rose Hetty Wickens

Albert Victor Faulknor
Rose Hetty Wickens
💍 1908/6467

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach painter

26
20

Masterton
Masterton

6 months
20 years

St. Matthews Church, Masterton

08/5023

James Wickens, father

2 July 1908

Rev. H. Watson

No	61
Date of Notice	2 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Victor Faulknor	Rose Hetty Wickens
	💍 1908/6467
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach painter
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	6 months	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Masterton
Folio	08/5023
Consent	James Wickens, father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

6 July 1908

Frederick Joseph Foster
Helen Elizabeth Joan Latter

Frederick Joseph Foster
Helen Elizabeth Joan Latter
💍 1908/6484

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Nurse

32
25

Masterton
Masterton

3 days
4 days

Knox Church Manse, Masterton

08/5030

6 July 1908

Rev. Alex. T. Thompson

No	62
Date of Notice	6 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Joseph Foster	Helen Elizabeth Joan Latter
	💍 1908/6484
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Nurse
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Knox Church Manse, Masterton
Folio	08/5030
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex. T. Thompson

13 July 1908

Stephen Edwin Harris Cooper
Agnes Ethel Elson

Stephen Edwin Harris Cooper
Agnes Ethel Elson
💍 1908/6468

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse trainer
Barmaid

24
24

Masterton
Masterton

4 months
3 months

St. Matthews Church, Masterton

08/5024

13 July 1908

Rev. H. Watson

No	63
Date of Notice	13 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Edwin Harris Cooper	Agnes Ethel Elson
	💍 1908/6468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse trainer	Barmaid
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	4 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Masterton
Folio	08/5024
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

14 July 1908

Henry Babington
Cecil Louisa Jane Truscott

Henry Babington
Cecil Louisa Jane Gruscott
💍 1908/6485

Bachelor
Spinster

Stonemason

29
30

Masterton
Masterton

5 years
30 years

Residence of E. W. Truscott, Cornwall Street, Masterton

08/5031

14 July 1908

Rev. Alex. T. Thompson

No	64
Date of Notice	14 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Babington	Cecil Louisa Jane Truscott
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Babington	Cecil Louisa Jane Gruscott
	💍 1908/6485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stonemason
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	5 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of E. W. Truscott, Cornwall Street, Masterton
Folio	08/5031
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex. T. Thompson

20 July 1908

Norman Frederick Moore
Eleanor Beatrice Baird

Norman Frederick Moore
Eleanor Beatrice Baird
💍 1908/6469

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer

29
34

Masterton
Masterton

3 days
10 days

Dwelling house of Mr. Geo. W. Moore, Brammerton, Taueru

08/5025

20 July 1908

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	65
Date of Notice	20 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Frederick Moore	Eleanor Beatrice Baird
	💍 1908/6469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer
Age	29	34
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	3 days	10 days
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mr. Geo. W. Moore, Brammerton, Taueru
Folio	08/5025
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).