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 369

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

216

13 March 1908

Herbert Frederick Clarke
Myrtle Fanny Irene Chinchen

Herbert Frederick Clarke
Myrtle Fanny Irena Chinchen
💍 1908/1080

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

21
23

Wellington
Wellington South

8 years
life

Wesleyan Methodist Church, Revan Street, Wellington South

08/1072

13 March 1908

Rev. W. J. Williams

No	216
Date of Notice	13 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Frederick Clarke	Myrtle Fanny Irene Chinchen
BDM Match (98%)	Herbert Frederick Clarke	Myrtle Fanny Irena Chinchen
	💍 1908/1080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	8 years	life
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Methodist Church, Revan Street, Wellington South
Folio	08/1072
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Williams

217

13 March 1908

John McNab
Katherine Elizabeth Dickson

John McNab
Katherine Elizabeth Dickson
💍 1908/1067

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

29
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
life

Residence of Mr. T. C. Dickson, 26 Featherston Terrace, Wellington

08/1083

13 March 1908

Rev. C. Porter

No	217
Date of Notice	13 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McNab	Katherine Elizabeth Dickson
	💍 1908/1067
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. T. C. Dickson, 26 Featherston Terrace, Wellington
Folio	08/1083
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Porter

218

13 March 1908

George Henry Birchall
Eugenie Victoria Jane

George Henry Birchall
Eugenie Victoria Jane
💍 1908/946

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
2 weeks

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

08/958

13 March 1908

Rev. G. P. Davys

No	218
Date of Notice	13 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Birchall	Eugenie Victoria Jane
	💍 1908/946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/958
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Davys

219

14 March 1908

Charles Edward Scott
Ethel Frampton

Charles Edward Scott
Ethel Frampton
💍 1908/930

Bachelor
Spinster

French Polisher

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/918

14 March 1908

Registrar

No	219
Date of Notice	14 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Scott	Ethel Frampton
	💍 1908/930
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	French Polisher
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/918
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar

220

16 March 1908

Georg Oswald Clayton
Widowed 10 March 1903
Elizabeth Paterson Duncan

George Oswald Clayton
Elizabeth Paterson Duncan
💍 1908/997

Widower
Spinster

Building Contractor

64
48

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wellington

08/1010

16 March 1908

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	220
Date of Notice	16 March 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Georg Oswald Clayton Widowed 10 March 1903	Elizabeth Paterson Duncan
BDM Match (98%)	George Oswald Clayton	Elizabeth Paterson Duncan
	💍 1908/997
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Building Contractor
Age	64	48
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	08/1010
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).