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 417

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

451

29 May 1908

Robert Thomas Graham
Florence Louisa McDowell

Robert Thomas Graham
Florence Louisa McDowell
💍 1908/4522

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. Gamble, 17 Jacob's Place, Wellington

08/2986

Charlotte McDowell (mother)

29 May 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	451
Date of Notice	29 May 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Thomas Graham	Florence Louisa McDowell
	💍 1908/4522
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Gamble, 17 Jacob's Place, Wellington
Folio	08/2986
Consent	Charlotte McDowell (mother)
Date of Certificate	29 May 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

452

29 May 1908

Fred Tasman Moore
Agnes Ada Cornelius

Fred Tasman Moore
Agnes Ada Cornelius
💍 1908/4523

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
5 years

Residence of Mr. F. T. Moore, Adams Terrace, off Aro Street, Wellington

08/2987

29 May 1908

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	452
Date of Notice	29 May 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Tasman Moore	Agnes Ada Cornelius
	💍 1908/4523
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. F. T. Moore, Adams Terrace, off Aro Street, Wellington
Folio	08/2987
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

453

29 May 1908

William Richard Lackey Gibbes
Edith Muriel Ward

William Richard Laclay Gibbes
Edith Muriel Ward
💍 1908/4528

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

28
19

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
10 years

St. Mary's Church, Karori

08/2969

Eva Mary Cahill (mother)

29 May 1908

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	453
Date of Notice	29 May 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Richard Lackey Gibbes	Edith Muriel Ward
BDM Match (97%)	William Richard Laclay Gibbes	Edith Muriel Ward
	💍 1908/4528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Karori
Folio	08/2969
Consent	Eva Mary Cahill (mother)
Date of Certificate	29 May 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

454

29 May 1908

Reginald Skerman
Emily Adelaide Corrigan

Reginald Skerman
Emily Adelaide Corrigan
💍 1908/4601

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

41
33

Newbury, Palmerston North
Wellington

2 years
5 weeks

Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

08/3044

29 May 1908

Rev. J. P. Hickson

No	454
Date of Notice	29 May 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Skerman	Emily Adelaide Corrigan
	💍 1908/4601
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	41	33
Dwelling Place	Newbury, Palmerston North	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/3044
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Hickson

455

30 May 1908

Fredrick Conrick Leopold Olsen
Catherine Sarah Wiltshire

Fredrick Conrich Leopold Olsen
Catherine Sarah Wiltshire
💍 1908/4493

Bachelor
Widow 10 May 1906

Sail Maker

56
55

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
5 months

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

08/2957

30 May 1908

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	455
Date of Notice	30 May 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fredrick Conrick Leopold Olsen	Catherine Sarah Wiltshire
BDM Match (98%)	Fredrick Conrich Leopold Olsen	Catherine Sarah Wiltshire
	💍 1908/4493
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 10 May 1906
Profession	Sail Maker
Age	56	55
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	5 months
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/2957
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).