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 355

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1909 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodghins

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

176

27 February 1909

Ernest Horoman
Gertrude Midgley

Ernest Horsman
Gertrude Midgley
💍 1909/303

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

15 months
6 days

Registrars office Wellington

09/41

27 February 1909

Registrar

No	176
Date of Notice	27 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Horoman	Gertrude Midgley
BDM Match (96%)	Ernest Horsman	Gertrude Midgley
	💍 1909/303
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrars office Wellington
Folio	09/41
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Registrar

177

27 February 1909

John George Bowen Richards
Olivia Septimine Gray

John George Bowan Richards
Olivia Sephmine Gray
💍 1909/1029

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine officer

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
8 years

Residence of Mrs Gray, 19 Buller Street, Wellington

09/871

27 February 1909

Rev S.P. Serpell

No	177
Date of Notice	27 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John George Bowen Richards	Olivia Septimine Gray
BDM Match (93%)	John George Bowan Richards	Olivia Sephmine Gray
	💍 1909/1029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine officer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Gray, 19 Buller Street, Wellington
Folio	09/871
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev S.P. Serpell

178

27 February 1909

Frank Grist
Edith Vannini

Frank Grint
Edith Vannini
💍 1909/304

Bachelor
Spinster

Fire Brigadesman

34
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 1/2 years

Registrars office Wellington

09/42

27 February 1909

Registrar

No	178
Date of Notice	27 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Grist	Edith Vannini
BDM Match (95%)	Frank Grint	Edith Vannini
	💍 1909/304
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fire Brigadesman
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars office Wellington
Folio	09/42
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Registrar

179

27 February 1909

George Hopping
Ethel Marianne Rogers

George Hopping
Ethel Marianne Rogers
💍 1909/740

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Laborer

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
6 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Donald McLean Street

09/587

27 February 1909

Rev J Cocker

No	179
Date of Notice	27 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Hopping	Ethel Marianne Rogers
	💍 1909/740
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Laborer
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Donald McLean Street
Folio	09/587
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev J Cocker

180

1 March 1909

Roger Fleming Borrett
Alice Louisa Tamlin

Roger Fleming Borreti
Alice Louisa Tamlin
💍 1909/962

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

20
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
1 week

St Peters Church, Wellington

09/823

15 March 1909

Rev G.P. Davys

No	180
Date of Notice	1 March 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roger Fleming Borrett	Alice Louisa Tamlin
BDM Match (98%)	Roger Fleming Borreti	Alice Louisa Tamlin
	💍 1909/962
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	09/823
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev G.P. Davys

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).