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 518

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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

361

9 May 1910

James Campbell Crawford
Ethel Margaret Tate

James Campbell Crawford
Ethel Margaret Tate
💍 1910/2543

Bachelor
Widow (28 August 1907)

Driver

26
27

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
3 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington

10/2692

9 May 1910

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	361
Date of Notice	9 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Campbell Crawford	Ethel Margaret Tate
	💍 1910/2543
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (28 August 1907)
Profession	Driver
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	10/2692
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 May 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

362

9 May 1910

Carl Otto Josephson
Louisa Heginbotham

Carl Otto Josephson
Louisa Higinbotham
💍 1910/2542

Bachelor
Spinster

Clothier

28
24

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
Life Wellington

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

10/2691

9 May 1910

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	362
Date of Notice	9 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl Otto Josephson	Louisa Heginbotham
BDM Match (97%)	Carl Otto Josephson	Louisa Higinbotham
	💍 1910/2542
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clothier
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	Life Wellington
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	10/2691
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 May 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

363

9 May 1910

Patrick Fraser Howden
Joyce Champion Hislop

Patrick Fraser Howden
Joyce Champion Hislop
💍 1910/3541

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

39
18

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
3 months

St. Pauls Pro Cathedral, Palmerston

3784

Walter Kerr Hislop, Father

9 May 1910

Rev. T. H. Sprott

No	363
Date of Notice	9 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Fraser Howden	Joyce Champion Hislop
	💍 1910/3541
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	39	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Pro Cathedral, Palmerston
Folio	3784
Consent	Walter Kerr Hislop, Father
Date of Certificate	9 May 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Sprott

364

9 May 1910

Cecil Beer
Alice Alice Gabriella Ruhe

Cecil Beer
Alice Gabriella Ruhe
💍 1910/100

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

30
25

Wellington
Wellington

15 Months
18 Months

Registrars Office, Wellington

10/2624

9 May 1910

Registrar

No	364
Date of Notice	9 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Beer	Alice Alice Gabriella Ruhe
BDM Match (88%)	Cecil Beer	Alice Gabriella Ruhe
	💍 1910/100
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 Months	18 Months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	10/2624
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 May 1910
Officiating Minister	Registrar

365

9 May 1910

Jacob Austin Campbell Knowles
Beatrice Ellen Watson Morriss

Jacob Austin Campbell Knowles
Beatrice Ellen Watson Morris
💍 1910/2571

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

26
17

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Residence of Mrs. Shaw, 11 Frederick Street, Wellington

10/2671

Sarah Ellen Shaw, Mother

9 May 1910

Rev. W. Shirer

No	365
Date of Notice	9 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jacob Austin Campbell Knowles	Beatrice Ellen Watson Morriss
BDM Match (98%)	Jacob Austin Campbell Knowles	Beatrice Ellen Watson Morris
	💍 1910/2571
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Shaw, 11 Frederick Street, Wellington
Folio	10/2671
Consent	Sarah Ellen Shaw, Mother
Date of Certificate	9 May 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).