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 610

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 December 1909 Registrar Herbert Logie

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

20 November 1909

Michael McCarthy
May Collins

Michael McCarthy
May Collins
💍 1909/5530

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

34
33

Westport
Westport

3 years
2 weeks

In the Roman Catholic Church, Westport

09/7024

20 November 1909

Rev. T. Walshe

No	33
Date of Notice	20 November 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael McCarthy	May Collins
	💍 1909/5530
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	3 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church, Westport
Folio	09/7024
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Walshe

29 November 1909

Andrew Condie Raeburn
Ann Jane Anderson Lawson

Andrew Condie Raeburn
Ann Jane Anderson Lawson
💍 1909/5459

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

28
29

Westport
Westport

3 days
3 days

In the Church of England, Westport

09/7016

29 November 1909

Rev. J. R. Dart

No	34
Date of Notice	29 November 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Condie Raeburn	Ann Jane Anderson Lawson
	💍 1909/5459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the Church of England, Westport
Folio	09/7016
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Dart

4 December 1909

Arthur Henry Moore
Ellen Elizabeth O'Brien

Arthur Henry Moore
Ellen Elizabeth OBrien
💍 1909/5460

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

22
21

Westport
Westport

18 months
21 years

In the Church of England, Westport

09/7017

4 December 1909

Rev. J. R. Dart

No	35
Date of Notice	4 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Henry Moore	Ellen Elizabeth O'Brien
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Henry Moore	Ellen Elizabeth OBrien
	💍 1909/5460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	18 months	21 years
Marriage Place	In the Church of England, Westport
Folio	09/7017
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Dart

6 December 1909

John Cox
Mary Catherine Williams

John Cox
Mary Catherine Williams
💍 1909/5531

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

22
21

Westport
Westport

7 years
20 years

In the residence of Mr. Michael Williams, Queen St., Westport

09/7025

6 December 1909

Rev. T. Walshe

No	36
Date of Notice	6 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cox	Mary Catherine Williams
	💍 1909/5531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	7 years	20 years
Marriage Place	In the residence of Mr. Michael Williams, Queen St., Westport
Folio	09/7025
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Walshe

11 December 1909

John Henry Carew
Mary Ellen Molony

John Henry Carew
Mary Ellen Molony
💍 1909/5532

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

35
28

Westport
Westport

9 years
27 years

In the residence of the J. J. Molony, Esplanade, Westport

09/7026

11 December 1909

Rev. T. Walshe

No	37
Date of Notice	11 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Carew	Mary Ellen Molony
	💍 1909/5532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	9 years	27 years
Marriage Place	In the residence of the J. J. Molony, Esplanade, Westport
Folio	09/7026
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Walshe

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).