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 347

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

106

8 February 1908

William Taylor Rothwell
Margaret Mary Curran

William Taylor Rothwell
Margaret Mary Curran
💍 1908/1022

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

25
30

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
3 days

Church of The Sacred Heart, Wellington

08/1035

8 February 1908

Rev. N. B. Moloney

No	106
Date of Notice	8 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Taylor Rothwell	Margaret Mary Curran
	💍 1908/1022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	25	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of The Sacred Heart, Wellington
Folio	08/1035
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. B. Moloney

107

8 February 1908

Patrick James Moran
Ellen Teresa O'Sullivan

Patrick James Moran
Ellen Teresa O'Sullivan
💍 1908/1056

Bachelor
Spinster

Road Inspector

39
27

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
14 years

St. Joseph's Church, Wellington

08/1048

8 February 1908

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	107
Date of Notice	8 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick James Moran	Ellen Teresa O'Sullivan
	💍 1908/1056
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Road Inspector
Age	39	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/1048
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

108

8 February 1908

Arthur McKee
Widowed 2 May 1905
Annie Isabel Macdonald

Arthur McKee
Annie Isabel Macdonald
💍 1908/1023

Widower
Spinster

Estate Agent

44
27

Lower Hutt
Wellington

17 years
4 years

Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

08/1036

8 February 1908

Rev. N. B. Moloney

No	108
Date of Notice	8 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur McKee Widowed 2 May 1905	Annie Isabel Macdonald
	💍 1908/1023
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Estate Agent
Age	44	27
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1036
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. B. Moloney

109

10 February 1908

William George Gow
Mary Ellen Smith

William George Gow
Mary Ellen Smith
💍 1908/1530

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
5 days

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

08/1557

10 February 1908

Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett

No	109
Date of Notice	10 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Gow	Mary Ellen Smith
	💍 1908/1530
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/1557
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett

110

10 February 1908

Leonard Knight
Myrtle Edith Newnham

Leonard Knight
Myrtle Edith Newnham
💍 1908/1095

Bachelor
Spinster

N.Z. Railway Porter

25
21

Lower Hutt
Petone

15 years
5 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Wellington

08/1093

10 February 1908

Rev. B. Metson

No	110
Date of Notice	10 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Knight	Myrtle Edith Newnham
	💍 1908/1095
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	N.Z. Railway Porter
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	15 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Wellington
Folio	08/1093
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Metson

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).