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 345

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

5 February 1908

William Emry de Malmanche
Mary Ann Lowrie

William Emry de Malmanche
Mary Ann Lowrie
💍 1908/1031

Bachelor
Spinster

Survey-hand

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 years

Residence of Mr. A. E. Prime, Tully Street, Kilbirnie

08/1021

5 February 1908

Rev. W. Douglas

No	96
Date of Notice	5 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Emry de Malmanche	Mary Ann Lowrie
	💍 1908/1031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Survey-hand
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. A. E. Prime, Tully Street, Kilbirnie
Folio	08/1021
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Douglas

5 February 1908

James Oswald O'Sullivan
Annie Agnes Telfar

James Oswald O'Sullivan
Annie Agnes Telfar
💍 1908/3869

Bachelor
Spinster

Commission Agent

30
27

Wellington
Brooklyn

20 years
2 years

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

08/1045

5 February 1908

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	97
Date of Notice	5 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Oswald O'Sullivan	Annie Agnes Telfar
	💍 1908/3869
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commission Agent
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	20 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1045
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

5 February 1908

Thomas Joseph Mulcahy
Helen Elizabeth McLaughlin

Thomas Joseph Mulcahy
Helen Elizabeth McLaughlin
💍 1908/1054

Bachelor
Spinster

Iron Moulder

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
Life

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

08/1046

5 February 1908

Rev. A. Herring

No	98
Date of Notice	5 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Joseph Mulcahy	Helen Elizabeth McLaughlin
	💍 1908/1054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Iron Moulder
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1046
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Herring

6 February 1908

Clive Wright
Nora Magdalene O'Shannessey

Clive Wright
Nora Magdalene O'Shanessey
💍 1908/1020

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
5 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington

08/1034

6 February 1908

Rev. N. B. Moloney

No	99
Date of Notice	6 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clive Wright	Nora Magdalene O'Shannessey
BDM Match (98%)	Clive Wright	Nora Magdalene O'Shanessey
	💍 1908/1020
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1034
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. B. Moloney

100

6 February 1908

August Julius Wackrow
widowed 22 November 1905
Elizabeth Curtayne

August Julius Wakrow
Elizabeth Curtayne
💍 1908/878

Widower
Spinster

Hospital Attendant

35
27

Porirua
Porirua

6 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

08/889

6 February 1908

Registrar

No	100
Date of Notice	6 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	August Julius Wackrow widowed 22 November 1905	Elizabeth Curtayne
BDM Match (98%)	August Julius Wakrow	Elizabeth Curtayne
	💍 1908/878
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Hospital Attendant
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	08/889
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).