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 619

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1910 Registrar G. G. 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

842

25 November 1910

Leonard Reginald Barber
Elsie Rowena Vance

Leonard Reginald Barber
Elsie Rowena Vance
💍 1910/6736

Bachelor
Spinster

Dyer

26
23

Petone, Wellington
Seatoun, Wellington

3 years

Anglican Church, Worser Bay

10/7096

25 November 1910

Rev. H. G. Blackburne

No	842
Date of Notice	25 November 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Reginald Barber	Elsie Rowena Vance
	💍 1910/6736
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dyer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Petone, Wellington	Seatoun, Wellington
Length of Residence		3 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Worser Bay
Folio	10/7096
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 November 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Blackburne

843

26 November 1910

Ebenezer Thomas Stoddart Lambert
Mona Gwendolynne Gray

Ebenzer Thomas Stoddart Lambert
Nora Gwendolynne Gray
💍 1910/6647

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

18 years
8 years

Residence of Rev. W. S. Potter, Webb St., Wellington

10/7005

26 November 1910

Rev. W. S. Potter

No	843
Date of Notice	26 November 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ebenezer Thomas Stoddart Lambert	Mona Gwendolynne Gray
BDM Match (94%)	Ebenzer Thomas Stoddart Lambert	Nora Gwendolynne Gray
	💍 1910/6647
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. W. S. Potter, Webb St., Wellington
Folio	10/7005
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Potter

844

26 November 1910

Thomas Martin Stephens
Harriett Anne Lim

Thomas Martin Stephens
Harriett Anne Sim
💍 1910/6695

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

28
26

Wellington
Johnsonville

28 years
25 years

Baptist Church, Wellington South

10/7078

26 November 1910

Rev. E. H. Owen

No	844
Date of Notice	26 November 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Martin Stephens	Harriett Anne Lim
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Martin Stephens	Harriett Anne Sim
	💍 1910/6695
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	28 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Wellington South
Folio	10/7078
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. H. Owen

845

26 November 1910

David Alexander Craig
Margaret Bennie

David Alexander Craig
Margaret Bennie
💍 1910/6625

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouse Manager

23
25

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
7 years

St. John's Church, Wellington

10/6958

26 November 1910

Rev. J. Gibb, B.D.

No	845
Date of Notice	26 November 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alexander Craig	Margaret Bennie
	💍 1910/6625
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouse Manager
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	10/6958
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb, B.D.

846

28 November 1910

Thomas Vivian Hill
Elsie Spencer Walker

Thomas Vivian Hill
Elsie Spencer Walker
💍 1910/6556

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Mariner

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
2 months

Residence of Mr. G. Willis, Trent St., Island Bay, Wellington

10/6936

28 November 1910

Rev. W. Lawry

No	846
Date of Notice	28 November 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Vivian Hill	Elsie Spencer Walker
	💍 1910/6556
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G. Willis, Trent St., Island Bay, Wellington
Folio	10/6936
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 November 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Lawry

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).