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 328

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar Gilbert Graham 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

4 January 1908

Samuel Champion
Mary Jane Judd

Samuel Champion
Mary Jane Judd
💍 1908/845

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

31
19

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
10 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/857

There is no person resident in The Dominion having authority to give consent

18 January 1908

Deputy Registrar

No	11
Date of Notice	4 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Champion	Mary Jane Judd
	💍 1908/845
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/857
Consent	There is no person resident in The Dominion having authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

4 January 1908

Arthur Edward Logan
Jessie Harrington

Arthur Edward Logan
Jessie Harrington
💍 1908/846

Bachelor
Spinster

Glass Silverer

21
19

Wellington
Brooklyn

5 months
8 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/858

Alexander Harrington (Father)

4 January 1908

Deputy Registrar

No	12
Date of Notice	4 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Edward Logan	Jessie Harrington
	💍 1908/846
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Glass Silverer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	5 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/858
Consent	Alexander Harrington (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

4 January 1908

William George Wray
May Craig

William George Wray
May Craig
💍 1908/5679

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
33

Lower Hutt
Wellington

6 months
10 years

St. Paul's pro-Cathedral, Wellington

08/4218

4 January 1908

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	13
Date of Notice	4 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Wray	May Craig
	💍 1908/5679
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	33
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	08/4218
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

7 January 1908

David Mackay
Margaret Weir Martin

David Mackay
Margaret Weir Martin
💍 1908/1028

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller

29
25

Wellington
Lower Hutt

14 days
5 years

Residence of Mr. Robert Stevens, Laings Road, Lower Hutt

08/1018

7 January 1908

Rev. W. Marshall

No	14
Date of Notice	7 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Mackay	Margaret Weir Martin
	💍 1908/1028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	14 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Robert Stevens, Laings Road, Lower Hutt
Folio	08/1018
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Marshall

7 January 1908

Thomas Browne
Catherine Ann Mary O'Grady
Widowed 6 May 1902

Thomas Browne
Catherine Ann Mary O'Grady
💍 1908/1017

Bachelor
Widow

Railway Ganger

33
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
4 years

Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street Wellington

08/1031

7 January 1908

Rev. N. B. Moloney

No	15
Date of Notice	7 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Browne	Catherine Ann Mary O'Grady Widowed 6 May 1902
	💍 1908/1017
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Railway Ganger
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street Wellington
Folio	08/1031
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. B. Moloney

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).