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 554

District of Pelorus Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar A. H. Hale

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

2 January 1908

James Kennington
Constance Ethel Nesbitt

James Kennington
Constance Ethel Nesbitt
💍 1908/1118

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

22
21

Okaramio
Havelock Suburban

22 years
21 years

at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Okaramio

08/1135

2 January 1908

Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Kennington	Constance Ethel Nesbitt
	💍 1908/1118
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Okaramio	Havelock Suburban
Length of Residence	22 years	21 years
Marriage Place	at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Okaramio
Folio	08/1135
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

16 January 1908

Arthur Burnard Reade
Alice Elizabeth Simonsen

Arthur Bernard Reade
Alice Elizabeth Simonsen
💍 1908/1119

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
Domestic duties

29
23

Havelock
Canvastown

4 years
23 years

at the Residence of Neil Simonsen Canvastown

08/1136

16 January 1908

Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

No	2
Date of Notice	16 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Burnard Reade	Alice Elizabeth Simonsen
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Bernard Reade	Alice Elizabeth Simonsen
	💍 1908/1119
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	Domestic duties
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Havelock	Canvastown
Length of Residence	4 years	23 years
Marriage Place	at the Residence of Neil Simonsen Canvastown
Folio	08/1136
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

27 January 1908

Duncan McCallum
Emily Elizabeth May Hale

Duncan McCallum
Emily Elizabeth May Hale
💍 1908/1121

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic
Domestic duties

26
25

Blenheim
Havelock

26 years
6 months

at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Havelock

08/1137

27 January 1908

Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

No	3
Date of Notice	27 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan McCallum	Emily Elizabeth May Hale
	💍 1908/1121
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic	Domestic duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Havelock
Length of Residence	26 years	6 months
Marriage Place	at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Havelock
Folio	08/1137
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

8 February 1908

Duncan Gilchrist
Hazel Jane Bryant

Duncan Gilchrist
Hazel Jane Bryant
💍 1908/5285

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
21

Grove
Grove

3 years
6 years

at the Methodist Church, Mahakipawa

08/3786

8 February 1908

Rev. Richards, Methodist Minister Havelock

No	4
Date of Notice	8 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Gilchrist	Hazel Jane Bryant
	💍 1908/5285
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Grove	Grove
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	at the Methodist Church, Mahakipawa
Folio	08/3786
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Richards, Methodist Minister Havelock

14 February 1908

John Townsend
Jean Marian Jarvis

John Townsend
Edith Marian Jervis
💍 1908/3872

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

40
26

Blenheim
Havelock

8 months
20 years

at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Havelock

08/1138

14 February 1908

Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

No	5
Date of Notice	14 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Townsend	Jean Marian Jarvis
BDM Match (84%)	John Townsend	Edith Marian Jervis
	💍 1908/3872
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	40	26
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Havelock
Length of Residence	8 months	20 years
Marriage Place	at the Residence of the Brides Parents, Havelock
Folio	08/1138
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Stace, Church of England Havelock

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).