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 340

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

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

106

4 February 1909

Henry Valentine Horlor
Frances Dickie Cunningham

Henry Valentine Horlor
Frances Dickie Cunningham
💍 1909/732

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer's assistant

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
1 year

Residence of Mr. H. V. Horlor, 49 Hawker Street

09/602

4 February 1909

Rev. J. R. Elliott

No	106
Date of Notice	4 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Valentine Horlor	Frances Dickie Cunningham
	💍 1909/732
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer's assistant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. V. Horlor, 49 Hawker Street
Folio	09/602
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Elliott

107

4 February 1909

William Henry Edward Johnson
Lily Arrowsmith

William Henry Edward Johnson
Lily Arrowsmith
💍 1909/922

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter

28
29

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
8 years

Residence of Mr. D. Davis, 14 Kensington Street

09/759

4 February 1909

Rev. W. Shirer

No	107
Date of Notice	4 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Edward Johnson	Lily Arrowsmith
	💍 1909/922
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. D. Davis, 14 Kensington Street
Folio	09/759
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

108

4 February 1909

Foster Brown
Mary Emily Roussel

Foster Brown
Mary Emily Roussell
💍 1909/7819

Widower (29 October 1894)
Widow (15 March 1905)

Electro-typer

40
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Registrar's Office

09/24

4 February 1909

Registrar

No	108
Date of Notice	4 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Foster Brown	Mary Emily Roussel
BDM Match (97%)	Foster Brown	Mary Emily Roussell
	💍 1909/7819
Condition	Widower (29 October 1894)	Widow (15 March 1905)
Profession	Electro-typer
Age	40	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	09/24
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Registrar

109

4 February 1909

John Potter
Henrietta Elizabeth Bartlell

John Potter
Henrietta Elizabeth Bartlett
💍 1909/335

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

28
26

Wellington
Auckland

8 months
18 years

St. Matthew's Church

09/197

5 February 1909

Rev. W. E. Gillam

No	109
Date of Notice	4 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Potter	Henrietta Elizabeth Bartlell
BDM Match (96%)	John Potter	Henrietta Elizabeth Bartlett
	💍 1909/335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 months	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church
Folio	09/197
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam

110

6 February 1909

Herbert Percy Ellis
Ethel Rose McLennan

Herbert Percy Ellis
Ethel Rose McLennan
💍 1909/690

Bachelor
Spinster

Providore

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 1/2 years
11 years

St. John's Presbyterian Church

09/561

Alexander McLennan (Father)

6 February 1909

Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

No	110
Date of Notice	6 February 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Percy Ellis	Ethel Rose McLennan
	💍 1909/690
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Providore
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Presbyterian Church
Folio	09/561
Consent	Alexander McLennan (Father)
Date of Certificate	6 February 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, D.D.

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).