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 446

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

596

18 July 1908

George White
Mary Coleman

George White
Mary Coleman
💍 1908/3641

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

27
25

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
5 years

St. Mary of The Angels Church, Wellington

08/5285

18 July 1908

Rev. C. J. Venning

No	596
Date of Notice	18 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George White	Mary Coleman
	💍 1908/3641
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary of The Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	08/5285
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Venning

597

20 July 1908

Thomas Edward Willcox
Mary Ward

Thomas Edward Willcox
Mary Ward
💍 1908/6584

Bachelor
Spinster

Bridge Carpenter

25
21

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
6 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/5144

20 July 1908

Registrar

No	597
Date of Notice	20 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Edward Willcox	Mary Ward
	💍 1908/6584
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bridge Carpenter
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/5144
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar

598

20 July 1908

Arthur Walling
Emily Antrobus

Arthur Walling
Emily Antrobus
💍 1908/6642

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. J. Moore, Derwent Street, Island Bay, Wellington

08/5225

Henry Antrobus (Father)

20 July 1908

Rev. W. Shirer

No	598
Date of Notice	20 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Walling	Emily Antrobus
	💍 1908/6642
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Moore, Derwent Street, Island Bay, Wellington
Folio	08/5225
Consent	Henry Antrobus (Father)
Date of Certificate	20 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

599

20 July 1908

Charles Edward Lawrence
Jessie Smith

Charles Edward Lawrence
Jessie Smith
💍 1908/6757

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

32
32

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
8 years

Residence of Mrs. Smith, 187 Wellington Terrace, Wellington

08/5323

20 July 1908

Rev. Tudor Jones

No	599
Date of Notice	20 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Lawrence	Jessie Smith
	💍 1908/6757
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Smith, 187 Wellington Terrace, Wellington
Folio	08/5323
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Tudor Jones

600

21 July 1908

Allan Smith
Elizabeth Ellen Kershaw

Allan Smith
Elizabeth Ellen Kershaw
💍 1908/6714

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
5 months

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

08/5303

21 July 1908

Rev. S. J. Serpell

No	600
Date of Notice	21 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Smith	Elizabeth Ellen Kershaw
	💍 1908/6714
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	5 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5303
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Serpell

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).