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 335

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar G. G. Hodsoll

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

18 January 1908

William Patrick Dowling
Mary Dunne

William Patrick Dowling
Mary Dunne
💍 1908/884

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

37
22

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
21 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

08/872

18 January 1908

Deputy Registrar

No	46
Date of Notice	18 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Patrick Dowling	Mary Dunne
	💍 1908/884
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	08/872
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

20 January 1908

Charles Silas Sydney Kelly
Olive Myrtle Iris Hankins

Charles Silas Sydney Kelly
Olive Myrtle Iris Hankins
💍 1908/956

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

28
22

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
11 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

08/944

20 January 1908

Rev. C.W.I. Maclaverty

No	47
Date of Notice	20 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Silas Sydney Kelly	Olive Myrtle Iris Hankins
	💍 1908/956
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	08/944
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C.W.I. Maclaverty

20 January 1908

William Lawson Nix
Mary Ann May Maguire

William Lawson Nix
Mary Ann May Maguire
💍 1908/1046

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
25

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
6 days

St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington

08/1042

20 January 1908

Rev. T.J. Cahill

No	48
Date of Notice	20 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lawson Nix	Mary Ann May Maguire
	💍 1908/1046
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1042
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. T.J. Cahill

20 January 1908

Thomas Wills
Selena Harwood
Widowed - 30 October 1904

Thomas Wills
Selena Harwood
💍 1908/1063

Bachelor
Widow

Bricklayer

38
32

Wellington
Petone

3 weeks
6 weeks

Wesleyan Methodist Parsonage, 5 Emerson Street, Petone

08/1079

20 January 1908

Rev. R. Wilson

No	49
Date of Notice	20 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Wills	Selena Harwood Widowed - 30 October 1904
	💍 1908/1063
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	38	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	3 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Methodist Parsonage, 5 Emerson Street, Petone
Folio	08/1079
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Wilson

20 January 1908

Horace Edward Hill
Ellen Jane Durie
Decree absolute 20 May 1907

Horace Edward Hill
Ellen Jane Durie
💍 1908/1030

Bachelor
Divorcee

Drainpipe Maker

27
30

Wellington
Wellington

Life
13 years

Residence of Mr. W. Hedges, 4 Brown Street, Wellington

08/1020

20 January 1908

Rev. J. Paterson

No	50
Date of Notice	20 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Edward Hill	Ellen Jane Durie Decree absolute 20 May 1907
	💍 1908/1030
Condition	Bachelor	Divorcee
Profession	Drainpipe Maker
Age	27	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	13 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Hedges, 4 Brown Street, Wellington
Folio	08/1020
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

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).