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 360

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

171

27 February 1908

William John Walling
Effie Ann Collier Anderson

William John Walling
Effie Ann Collier Anderson
💍 1908/944

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

23
17

Wellington
Makara

5 years
17 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

08/956

Maitland Cuthbert Barlow Anderson (Father)(Father)

27 February 1908

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	171
Date of Notice	27 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Walling	Effie Ann Collier Anderson
	💍 1908/944
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Makara
Length of Residence	5 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/956
Consent	Maitland Cuthbert Barlow Anderson (Father)(Father)
Date of Certificate	27 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

172

27 February 1908

Francis Archibald Parker
Agnes Rosina Scott

Francis Archibald Parker
Agnes Rosina Scott
💍 1908/895

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

20
19

Wellington
Wellington

14 months
8 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/907

Susan Telfer (mother), Joseph Scott (Father)

27 February 1908

Registrar

No	172
Date of Notice	27 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Archibald Parker	Agnes Rosina Scott
	💍 1908/895
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/907
Consent	Susan Telfer (mother), Joseph Scott (Father)
Date of Certificate	27 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar

173

27 February 1908

Albert Christen John Wheeler Ahradsen
Gertrude Mabel Miller

Albert Christian John Wheeler Ahradsen
Gertrude Mabel Miller
💍 1908/969

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
23 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/983

27 February 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	173
Date of Notice	27 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Christen John Wheeler Ahradsen	Gertrude Mabel Miller
BDM Match (97%)	Albert Christian John Wheeler Ahradsen	Gertrude Mabel Miller
	💍 1908/969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/983
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

174

28 February 1908

William Henry Bowman
Elizabeth Wignall Taylor

William Henry Bowman
Elizabeth Wignall Taylor
💍 1908/1039

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

life
9 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

08/1055

John Dugald Taylor (Father)

28 February 1908

Very Rev. T. O'Shea

No	174
Date of Notice	28 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Bowman	Elizabeth Wignall Taylor
	💍 1908/1039
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	life	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1055
Consent	John Dugald Taylor (Father)
Date of Certificate	28 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. T. O'Shea

175

28 February 1908

Andrew Stewart Houston
Henrietta Nicoll

Andrew Stewart Hunston
Henritta Nicoll
💍 1908/1002

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
28

Khandallah
Wellington

13 years
8 years

Residence of Mr. A. Fowler, 22 Ellice Street, Wellington

08/1015

28 February 1908

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	175
Date of Notice	28 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Stewart Houston	Henrietta Nicoll
BDM Match (92%)	Andrew Stewart Hunston	Henritta Nicoll
	💍 1908/1002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. A. Fowler, 22 Ellice Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1015
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

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).