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 459

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

31 January 1910

John Lennox Murphy
Ellen O'Callaghan

John Lennox Murphy
Ellen O'Callaghan
💍 1910/983

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
25

Wellington
Wellington

28 years
3 years

St-Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

10/1092

31 January 1910

Rev C J Venning

No	66
Date of Notice	31 January 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lennox Murphy	Ellen O'Callaghan
	💍 1910/983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	28 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St-Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1092
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev C J Venning

31 January 1910

Willis Arnold Nicholson
Dorothy Mary Casey

Willis Arnold Nicholson
Dorothy Mary Casey
💍 1910/984

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
29

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
29 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington

10/1093

31 January 1910

Rev W Peoples

No	67
Date of Notice	31 January 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Willis Arnold Nicholson	Dorothy Mary Casey
	💍 1910/984
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1093
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev W Peoples

31 January 1910

Albert Edward Stuart-Wortley
Edith May Fitch

Albert Edward Stuart Wortley
Edith May Fitch
💍 1910/1037

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram Conductor

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 months

Residence of Mr Kelly, 72 Constable Street, Wellington

10/1046

31 January 1910

Rev W. Shirer

No	68
Date of Notice	31 January 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Stuart-Wortley	Edith May Fitch
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Edward Stuart Wortley	Edith May Fitch
	💍 1910/1037
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Kelly, 72 Constable Street, Wellington
Folio	10/1046
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Shirer

1 February 1910

William Lapsley
Eleanor Mary Simmons

William Lapsley
Eleanor Mary Simmons
💍 1910/3551

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
24

Wellington
Wadestown

3 years
24 years

St Pauls Pro Cathedral, Wellington

10/3778

1 February 1910

Rev T H Sprott

No	69
Date of Notice	1 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lapsley	Eleanor Mary Simmons
	💍 1910/3551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wadestown
Length of Residence	3 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Pro Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	10/3778
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev T H Sprott

1 February 1910

William John McBride
Mabel Hawkings

William John McIlvride
Mabel Hawkings
💍 1910/1038

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach Painter

27
23

Hutt
Petone

Life
Life

Knox Church, Hutt

10/1047

1 February 1910

Rev J. McCaw

No	70
Date of Notice	1 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John McBride	Mabel Hawkings
BDM Match (93%)	William John McIlvride	Mabel Hawkings
	💍 1910/1038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach Painter
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Hutt
Folio	10/1047
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev J. McCaw

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).