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 439

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

561

4 July 1908

William Henry Foster Lock
Sarah Annie Workman

William Henry Foster Lock
Sarah Annie Workman
💍 1908/6672

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

22
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 weeks

Residence of Mrs W. Houl, 10 Glencoe Street, Wellington

08/5255

4 July 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	561
Date of Notice	4 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Foster Lock	Sarah Annie Workman
	💍 1908/6672
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	22	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs W. Houl, 10 Glencoe Street, Wellington
Folio	08/5255
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

562

4 July 1908

Richard Henry Tregurtha
Ethel May Foreman

Richard Henry Tragurtha
Ethel May Foreman
💍 1908/6713

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

28
22

Wellington
Wellington

19 years
3 days

Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South

08/5302

4 July 1908

Rev. W. J. Williams

No	562
Date of Notice	4 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Henry Tregurtha	Ethel May Foreman
BDM Match (98%)	Richard Henry Tragurtha	Ethel May Foreman
	💍 1908/6713
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South
Folio	08/5302
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Williams

563

6 July 1908

James Malachi Sheridan
Emma Hogan

James Malachi Sheridan
Emma Hogan
💍 1908/6554

Bachelor
Widow 27 February 1900

Carpenter

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

years
years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/5136

6 July 1908

G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

No	563
Date of Notice	6 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Malachi Sheridan	Emma Hogan
	💍 1908/6554
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 27 February 1900
Profession	Carpenter
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	years	years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/5136
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1908
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

564

6 July 1908

Edward James Woodward
Mary Elizabeth Bowe

Edward James Woodward
Mary Elizabeth Bowe
💍 1908/6621

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer

27
27

Johnsonville
Wellington

18 months
3 weeks

St John's Church, Johnsonville

08/5204

6 July 1908

Rev. J. Vosper

No	564
Date of Notice	6 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Woodward	Mary Elizabeth Bowe
	💍 1908/6621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Johnsonville
Folio	08/5204
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Vosper

565

6 July 1908

Emil Frederick Karl Kruger-Ross
Edith Grace Drew

Emil Frederick Karl Kruger-Ross
Edith Grace Drew
💍 1908/6719

Bachelor
Spinster

Chef

31
26

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
18 months

Primitive Methodist Church, Wellington South

08/5309

6 July 1908

Rev. C. A. Sims

No	565
Date of Notice	6 July 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Emil Frederick Karl Kruger-Ross	Edith Grace Drew
	💍 1908/6719
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chef
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Wellington South
Folio	08/5309
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Sims

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).