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 533

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

1011

15 December 1908

Henry Sime
Ada McVicar

Henry Sime
Ada McVicar
💍 1908/2463

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
life

Presbyterian Church Manse Pirie Street, Wellington

08/7184

Catherine Doras, mother

15 December 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	1011
Date of Notice	15 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Sime	Ada McVicar
	💍 1908/2463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	life
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Manse Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	08/7184
Consent	Catherine Doras, mother
Date of Certificate	15 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

1012

16 December 1908

Archibald Henry Daniell
Florence Adeline Eddie

Archibald Henry Daniell
Florence Adeline Eddie
💍 1908/2519

Bachelor
Spinster

Draughtsman

23
23

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

3 days
3 days

Wesleyan Methodist Church Lower Hutt

08/7252

16 December 1908

Rev. J. N. Buttle

No	1012
Date of Notice	16 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Henry Daniell	Florence Adeline Eddie
	💍 1908/2519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draughtsman
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Methodist Church Lower Hutt
Folio	08/7252
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. N. Buttle

1013

16 December 1908

John Peter Porteous Clouston
Bertha Pearce

John Peter Porteous Clouston
Bertha Pearce
💍 1908/3448

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
15 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

08/8276

16 December 1908

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	1013
Date of Notice	16 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Peter Porteous Clouston	Bertha Pearce
	💍 1908/3448
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	08/8276
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

1014

16 December 1908

Stanley George Saunders
Janet McGuire

Stanley George Saunders
Janet McGuire
💍 1908/2465

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

23
19

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
life

Residence of Mr. R. McGuire 11 Revans Street, Wellington

08/7185

Robert McGuire, Father

16 December 1908

Rev. W. Shirer

No	1014
Date of Notice	16 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley George Saunders	Janet McGuire
	💍 1908/2465
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. R. McGuire 11 Revans Street, Wellington
Folio	08/7185
Consent	Robert McGuire, Father
Date of Certificate	16 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

1015

16 December 1908

James Jephson
Ada Underwood

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
15 years

Presbyterian Manse 25 Pirie Street, Wellington

16 December 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	1015
Date of Notice	16 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Jephson	Ada Underwood
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse 25 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

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).