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 522

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1908 Registrar G. H. 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

956

2 December 1908

Cyril Rupert Joseph Ward
Elinor Angela Davidson

Cyril Rupert Joseph Ward
Elinor Angela Davidson
💍 1908/2491

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent Manchester Ship Canal Company

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
3 years

Basilica of The Sacred Heart Hill Street, Wellington

08/7224

2 December 1908

Rev. J. P. Hickson

No	956
Date of Notice	2 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Rupert Joseph Ward	Elinor Angela Davidson
	💍 1908/2491
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent Manchester Ship Canal Company
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Basilica of The Sacred Heart Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/7224
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Hickson

957

2 December 1908

Victor Francis Buxton Rogers
Helen Grace Chapman Whiteford

Victor Francis Buxton Rogers
Helen Grace Chapman Whiteford
💍 1908/2464

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Officer

31
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
life

St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/7167

2 December 1908

Rev. J. Paterson

No	957
Date of Notice	2 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Francis Buxton Rogers	Helen Grace Chapman Whiteford
	💍 1908/2464
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Officer
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	life
Marriage Place	St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/7167
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

958

3 December 1908

Richard John Larking
Gladys Mary White

Richard John Larking
Gladys Mary White
💍 1908/2532

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
7 years

Residence of Rev. J. J. North, 75 Austen Street, Wellington

08/7268

3 December 1908

Rev. J. J. North

No	958
Date of Notice	3 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard John Larking	Gladys Mary White
	💍 1908/2532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. J. North, 75 Austen Street, Wellington
Folio	08/7268
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. North

959

3 December 1908

John William Macdonald
Agnes Mary Ross

John William Macdonald
Agnes Mary Ross
💍 1908/2470

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
life

St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/7168

3 December 1908

Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

No	959
Date of Notice	3 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Macdonald	Agnes Mary Ross
	💍 1908/2470
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	life
Marriage Place	St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/7168
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

960

3 December 1908

Frederic Roy McKenzie
Hellen Joan Banks

Fredric Roy McKenzie
Helen Joan Banks
💍 1908/2471

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

21
23

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
6 months

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Manse Hill Street, Wellington

08/7169

3 December 1908

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	960
Date of Notice	3 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Roy McKenzie	Hellen Joan Banks
BDM Match (95%)	Fredric Roy McKenzie	Helen Joan Banks
	💍 1908/2471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Manse Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/7169
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 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).