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 486

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1910 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

201

22 March 1910

Ernest Gordon Burns
Grace Jane Price

Ernest Gordon Burns
Grace Jane Price
💍 1910/1438

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

25
21

Kilbirnie
Wellington

2½ years
6 years

Residence of Mrs Price, Gabel Smith Street, Wellington

10/1151

22 March 1910

Rev J J North

No	201
Date of Notice	22 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Gordon Burns	Grace Jane Price
	💍 1910/1438
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Wellington
Length of Residence	2½ years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Price, Gabel Smith Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1151
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev J J North

202

22 March 1910

Harry James Colman Conway
Isabel Alice Berry

Harry James Colman Conway
Isabella Alice Berry
💍 1910/2427

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
Life

Residence of Mrs Scones, 13 Arthur Street, Wellington

10/2566

No person resident in Dominion having authority to give consent

5 April 1910

Rev J Paterson

No	202
Date of Notice	22 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry James Colman Conway	Isabel Alice Berry
BDM Match (95%)	Harry James Colman Conway	Isabella Alice Berry
	💍 1910/2427
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Scones, 13 Arthur Street, Wellington
Folio	10/2566
Consent	No person resident in Dominion having authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev J Paterson

203

22 March 1910

William Stark
Catherine Mary Hurley

William Stark
Catherine Mary Hurley
💍 1910/1109

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

40
30

Wellington
Wellington

Life
3 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington

10/1105

22 March 1910

Rev W Peoples

No	203
Date of Notice	22 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stark	Catherine Mary Hurley
	💍 1910/1109
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	40	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1105
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev W Peoples

204

22 March 1910

Philip Patrick Connor
Harriett Stevenson Young

Philip Patrick Connor
Harriett Stevenson Young
💍 1910/1110

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

34
26

Seatoun
Wellington

14 years
5 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington

10/1106

22 March 1910

Rev J P Hickson

No	204
Date of Notice	22 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Patrick Connor	Harriett Stevenson Young
	💍 1910/1110
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Seatoun	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1106
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev J P Hickson

205

22 March 1910

James Scott Connell
Mabel Susan Furness

James Scott Connell
Mabel Susan Farress
💍 1910/959

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

32
25

Maranui
Wellington

6 years
25 years

St Marks Church, Wellington

10/1017

22 March 1910

Rev A M Johnson

No	205
Date of Notice	22 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Scott Connell	Mabel Susan Furness
BDM Match (95%)	James Scott Connell	Mabel Susan Farress
	💍 1910/959
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Maranui	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Church, Wellington
Folio	10/1017
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev A M Johnson

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).