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 473

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

721

7 September 1908

George William Bowles
Susannah Lucy Anstis

George Williams Bowles
Susannah Lucy Anstis
💍 1908/6730

Widower 4/3/1907
Spinster

Motor Driver

38
28

Petone
Hutt

8 years
28 years

Roman Catholic Church, Hutt

08/5295

7 September 1908

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	721
Date of Notice	7 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Bowles	Susannah Lucy Anstis
BDM Match (98%)	George Williams Bowles	Susannah Lucy Anstis
	💍 1908/6730
Condition	Widower 4/3/1907	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Petone	Hutt
Length of Residence	8 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hutt
Folio	08/5295
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

722

7 September 1908

Randolph Benjamin Taylor
Thressa Maud Garbett

Randolph Benjamin Taylor
Thressa Maud Garbett
💍 1908/6729

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel-Keeper

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 months
2 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington

08/5294

7 September 1908

Rev. J. P. Hickson

No	722
Date of Notice	7 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Randolph Benjamin Taylor	Thressa Maud Garbett
	💍 1908/6729
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel-Keeper
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5294
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Hickson

723

8 September 1908

John Matthew Murdoch
Edith Mabel Cunningham

John Matthew Murdoch
Edith Mabel Cunningham
💍 1908/6689

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

30
28

Wellington
Wellington

Life
5 years

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/5248

8 September 1908

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	723
Date of Notice	8 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Matthew Murdoch	Edith Mabel Cunningham
	💍 1908/6689
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/5248
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

724

8 September 1908

Michael Shortis
Mary Ann Fitzgerald

Michael Shortes
Mary Ann Fitzgerald
💍 1908/6692

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

38
36

Miramar
Northland

5 years
16 years

St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church, Wellington South

08/5275

8 September 1908

Rev. A. Herring

No	724
Date of Notice	8 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Shortis	Mary Ann Fitzgerald
BDM Match (97%)	Michael Shortes	Mary Ann Fitzgerald
	💍 1908/6692
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	38	36
Dwelling Place	Miramar	Northland
Length of Residence	5 years	16 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church, Wellington South
Folio	08/5275
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 September 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Herring

725

9 September 1908

Herbert John Murrell Wells
Lucy Lefevre

Herbert John Murrell Wells
Lucy Lefevre
💍 1908/6666

Bachelor
Spinster

Clothier

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
1 day

St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/5249

9 September 1908

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	725
Date of Notice	9 September 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Murrell Wells	Lucy Lefevre
	💍 1908/6666
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clothier
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	1 day
Marriage Place	St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/5249
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 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).