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 475

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1908 Registrar G. G. 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

731

11 September 1908

Francis Lang Simpson
Olive Maria McCauley

Francis Lang Simpson
Olive Maria McCauley
💍 1908/6731

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

25
22

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

8 months
life

Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

08/5296

11 September 1908

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	731
Date of Notice	11 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Lang Simpson	Olive Maria McCauley
	💍 1908/6731
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	8 months	life
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	08/5296
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

732

11 September 1908

Augustine Stuart Henderson
Emily Beatrice Whichello

Augustine Stuart Henderson
Emily Beatrice Whichello
💍 1908/6732

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
9 months

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

08/5297

11 September 1908

Very Rev. T. O'Shea

No	732
Date of Notice	11 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Augustine Stuart Henderson	Emily Beatrice Whichello
	💍 1908/6732
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	9 months
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5297
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. T. O'Shea

733

14 September 1908

Isaac Newbold Hull
Alice Eliza Brand

Isaac Newbold Hull
Alice Eliza Brand
💍 1908/6745

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

33
34

Karaka Bay
Wellington

3 months
5 days

Primitive Methodist Church, Donald McLean Street, Wellington

08/5317

14 September 1908

Rev. H. Daniel

No	733
Date of Notice	14 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Newbold Hull	Alice Eliza Brand
	💍 1908/6745
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Karaka Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	5 days
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Donald McLean Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5317
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Daniel

734

14 September 1908

William Charles Hurcomb
Mary Annie Maisey

William Charles Hurcomb
Mary Annie Maisey
💍 1908/6752

Widower 2 June 1903
Widow 23 February 1902

Merchant

58
60

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
2 months

Residence of Mrs. T. Cripps, 2 Hiropi Street, Wellington

08/5318

14 September 1908

Rev. T. Keith Ewen

No	734
Date of Notice	14 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Charles Hurcomb	Mary Annie Maisey
	💍 1908/6752
Condition	Widower 2 June 1903	Widow 23 February 1902
Profession	Merchant
Age	58	60
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. T. Cripps, 2 Hiropi Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5318
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Keith Ewen

735

14 September 1908

Hugh Everard Webb
Mabel Motion Williams

Hugh Everard Webb
Mabel Motion Williams
💍 1908/6592

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
6 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/5175

14 September 1908

Registrar

No	735
Date of Notice	14 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Everard Webb	Mabel Motion Williams
	💍 1908/6592
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/5175
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).