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 386

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

296

9 April 1908

John Lyall Taylor
Margaret Stuart Taylor

John Lyall Taylor
Margaret Stuart Taylor
💍 1908/4621

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
6 hours

Residence of Mr. Richard Humphries, Ohiro Road, Brooklyn

08/3090

9 April 1908

Rev. J. J. North

No	296
Date of Notice	9 April 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lyall Taylor	Margaret Stuart Taylor
	💍 1908/4621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	6 hours
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Richard Humphries, Ohiro Road, Brooklyn
Folio	08/3090
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

297

9 April 1908

Alexander Adam Forbes
Harriet Georgina Westbrooke

Alexander Adam Forbes
Harriet Georgina Westbrooke
💍 1908/4534

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

32
26

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
14 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/2975

9 April 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	297
Date of Notice	9 April 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Adam Forbes	Harriet Georgina Westbrooke
	💍 1908/4534
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/2975
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

298

10 April 1908

Richard Hutton Davies
Eileen Kathleen Cornwall

Richard Hutton Davies
Eileen Kathleen Cornwall
💍 1908/4027

Widower 7/12/06
Spinster

Colonel N.Z.M.

46
27

Wellington
New Plymouth

16 months
27 years

Residence of L. C. Sladdon, Fitzroy, New Plymouth

08/2428

10 April 1908

Rev. S. S. Osborne

No	298
Date of Notice	10 April 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Hutton Davies	Eileen Kathleen Cornwall
	💍 1908/4027
Condition	Widower 7/12/06	Spinster
Profession	Colonel N.Z.M.
Age	46	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	New Plymouth
Length of Residence	16 months	27 years
Marriage Place	Residence of L. C. Sladdon, Fitzroy, New Plymouth
Folio	08/2428
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. S. Osborne

299

10 April 1908

Alexander McVinish
Mary Curtis

Alexander McVinish
Mary Curtis
💍 1908/5244

Widower 27 May 1901
Widow 26 May 1898

Hotelkeeper

43
38

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

Post Office Hotel, Grey Street, Wellington

08/3768

10 April 1908

Rev. Alex Thompson

No	299
Date of Notice	10 April 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McVinish	Mary Curtis
	💍 1908/5244
Condition	Widower 27 May 1901	Widow 26 May 1898
Profession	Hotelkeeper
Age	43	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Post Office Hotel, Grey Street, Wellington
Folio	08/3768
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex Thompson

300

11 April 1908

Percy Mepham
Katherine Browning

Percy Mepham
Katherine Browning
💍 1908/4483

Bachelor
Spinster

Piano Tuner

24
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 days

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

08/2925

11 April 1908

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	300
Date of Notice	11 April 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Mepham	Katherine Browning
	💍 1908/4483
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Piano Tuner
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 days
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	08/2925
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

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).