Intentions to Marry, 1910 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840443, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1910 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1910a), Wellington, , Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Westland (1910b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1910c).

Page 464

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1910 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

14 February 1910

Edwin Morrison Macfarlane
Wilhelmina Mercy Shearer

Edwin Morrison Macfarlane
Wilhelmina Mercy Shearer
💍 1910/946

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Signal Erector

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
Life

St Peters Church

10/997

14 February 1910

Rev G P Davys

No	91
Date of Notice	14 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Morrison Macfarlane	Wilhelmina Mercy Shearer
	💍 1910/946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Signal Erector
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	Life
Marriage Place	St Peters Church
Folio	10/997
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev G P Davys

14 February 1910

Reginald Cunliffe Foster
Barbara Vera Salome Herbert

Reginald Cunliff Foster
Barbara Vera Salame Herbert
💍 1910/938

Bachelor
Spinster

Late Member London Stock Exchange

49
29

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
6 days

St Peters Church

10/996

14 February 1910

Rev G. P. Davys

No	92
Date of Notice	14 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Cunliffe Foster	Barbara Vera Salome Herbert
BDM Match (96%)	Reginald Cunliff Foster	Barbara Vera Salame Herbert
	💍 1910/938
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Late Member London Stock Exchange
Age	49	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Church
Folio	10/996
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev G. P. Davys

14 February 1910

Frederic Willoughby
Jessie Sutherland

Frederic Willoughby
Jessie Sutherland
💍 1910/1117

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

22
27

Wellington
Petone

2.5 years
6 years

Residence of Mr J Boyd. Hutt Road

10/1140

14 February 1910

Mr L. O. Stanton

No	93
Date of Notice	14 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Willoughby	Jessie Sutherland
	💍 1910/1117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	2.5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr J Boyd. Hutt Road
Folio	10/1140
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Mr L. O. Stanton

14 February 1910

Charles Elliot Bell
Eva Harriette Beauchamp

Charles Elliot Bell
Eva Harriet Beauchamp
💍 1910/1064

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

34
32

Hataitai Wellington
Wellington

13 years
25 years

Residence of Mr A C Croll 2 Waripori Street Wellington

10/1050

14 February 1910

Rev J K Elliott

No	94
Date of Notice	14 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Elliot Bell	Eva Harriette Beauchamp
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Elliot Bell	Eva Harriet Beauchamp
	💍 1910/1064
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Hataitai Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr A C Croll 2 Waripori Street Wellington
Folio	10/1050
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev J K Elliott

14 February 1910

Willie Peter
Annie Hohua

Willie Peter
Annie Hohua
💍 1910/888

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

19
16

Waiwhetu Hutt
Waiwhetu Hutt

3 days
5 years

Registrars Office

10/945

Mary Peter Mother, Haumia Hohua Father

14 February 1910

Registrar

No	95
Date of Notice	14 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Willie Peter	Annie Hohua
	💍 1910/888
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	19	16
Dwelling Place	Waiwhetu Hutt	Waiwhetu Hutt
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office
Folio	10/945
Consent	Mary Peter Mother, Haumia Hohua Father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).