Intentions to Marry, 1909 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840440, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1909 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1909a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1909b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1909c).

Page 434

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1909 Registrar Gilbert Graham 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

571

9 July 1909

Lawrence Theodore Otto Carstens
Harriet Robson

Laurence Theodore Otto Carstins
Harriet Robson
💍 1909/3572

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
24

Wellington
Brooklyn

9 years
Life

Residence of Mrs Rosa Greig, Clyde Street, Island Bay

09/4842

9 July 1909

Rev. S. J. Serpell

No	571
Date of Notice	9 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence Theodore Otto Carstens	Harriet Robson
BDM Match (97%)	Laurence Theodore Otto Carstins	Harriet Robson
	💍 1909/3572
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	9 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Rosa Greig, Clyde Street, Island Bay
Folio	09/4842
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Serpell

572

9 July 1909

George Thomas Wait
Louisa Mabel Searle

George Thomas Watt
Louisa Mabel Searle
💍 1909/3625

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

36
31

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
12 years

St John's Manse, Woolcombe Street, Wellington

09/4770

9 July 1909

Rev. J. Gibb

No	572
Date of Notice	9 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Thomas Wait	Louisa Mabel Searle
BDM Match (97%)	George Thomas Watt	Louisa Mabel Searle
	💍 1909/3625
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	36	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St John's Manse, Woolcombe Street, Wellington
Folio	09/4770
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

573

9 July 1909

Charles Brighton Green
Elizabeth Mary Wilshire

CHarles John Brighton Green
Elizabeth Mary Wilshire
💍 1909/3503

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter & Joiner

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

16 months
6 days

Residence of Mr W. Wilshire, 140 Adelaide Road, Wellington

09/4747

William J. H. Wilshire, Father

9 July 1909

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	573
Date of Notice	9 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Brighton Green	Elizabeth Mary Wilshire
BDM Match (89%)	CHarles John Brighton Green	Elizabeth Mary Wilshire
	💍 1909/3503
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter & Joiner
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr W. Wilshire, 140 Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	09/4747
Consent	William J. H. Wilshire, Father
Date of Certificate	9 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

574

9 July 1909

Clarence Mason
Annie Isabella Reid

Clarence Mason Armiss
Isabella Reid
💍 1909/3504

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 weeks
13 years

Residence of Mr C. Reid, 159 Taranaki Street, Wellington

09/4748

9 July 1909

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	574
Date of Notice	9 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Mason	Annie Isabella Reid
BDM Match (68%)	Clarence Mason Armiss	Isabella Reid
	💍 1909/3504
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	13 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr C. Reid, 159 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	09/4748
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

575

10 July 1909

Henry Clatworthy Edmonds
Ina Eliza Haines

Henry Clatworthy Edmonds
Ina Eliza Haines
💍 1909/7897

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
5 weeks

St Anne's Church, Wellington South

09/4809

10 July 1909

Rev. A. Herring

No	575
Date of Notice	10 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Clatworthy Edmonds	Ina Eliza Haines
	💍 1909/7897
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	09/4809
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Herring

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).