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 379

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

296

7 April 1909

John Reuton Williamson
Constance Rosa Hawthorne

John Renton Williamson
Constance Rosa Hawthorne
💍 1909/3469

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
28

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
21 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

09/4705

7 April 1909

Rev. F. G. Sprott

No	296
Date of Notice	7 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Reuton Williamson	Constance Rosa Hawthorne
BDM Match (98%)	John Renton Williamson	Constance Rosa Hawthorne
	💍 1909/3469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	09/4705
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Sprott

297

7 April 1909

Robert Baillie
Isabella Mullin

Robert Baillie
Isabella Mullin
💍 1909/1671

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

35
33

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
11 years

Church Buckle Street, Wellington

09/2795

7 April 1909

Rev. F. O'Shea

No	297
Date of Notice	7 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Baillie	Isabella Mullin
	💍 1909/1671
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	35	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Church Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	09/2795
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. O'Shea

298

7 April 1909

James O'Brien
Catherine Margaret Muleahy

James O'Brien
Katherine Margaret Mulcahy
💍 1909/1677

James O'Brien
Kate Teresa Flaherty
💍 1909/1801

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

30
20

Lower Hutt
Wellington

5 years
15 years

Basilica of the Sacred Heart Hill Street, Wellington

09/2796

Patrick Muleahy, father

7 April 1909

Rev. J. P. Hickson

No	298
Date of Notice	7 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James O'Brien	Catherine Margaret Muleahy
BDM Match (96%)	James O'Brien	Katherine Margaret Mulcahy
	💍 1909/1677
BDM Match (63%)	James O'Brien	Kate Teresa Flaherty
	💍 1909/1801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Basilica of the Sacred Heart Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	09/2796
Consent	Patrick Muleahy, father
Date of Certificate	7 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Hickson

299

7 April 1909

William Henry Gledhill
Isobel Rutherford Bell

William Henry Gledhill
Isobel Rutherford Bell
💍 1909/1678

Bachelor
Spinster

Fire Insurance Inspector

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
9 years

St Josephs Church Buckle Street, Wellington

09/2797

7 April 1909

Rev. F. O'Shea

No	299
Date of Notice	7 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Gledhill	Isobel Rutherford Bell
	💍 1909/1678
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fire Insurance Inspector
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St Josephs Church Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	09/2797
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. O'Shea

300

7 April 1909

William Russell
Sabina Kaue

William Russell
Sabina Kane
💍 1909/1679

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

39
31

Petone
Petone

7 months
12 months

Roman Catholic Church, Petone

09/2798

7 April 1909

Rev. F. G. Maples

No	300
Date of Notice	7 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Russell	Sabina Kaue
BDM Match (95%)	William Russell	Sabina Kane
	💍 1909/1679
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	39	31
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	7 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Petone
Folio	09/2798
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Maples

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).