Intentions to Marry, 1902 North Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840421, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, October 3 2025

1902 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 1038

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1902 Registrar George John Alexander Johnstone

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

1329

22 October 1902

Alexander Lindsay
Catherine McIntosh

Alexander Lindsay
Catherine McIntosh
💍 1902/6353

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

40 years
23 years

Sherandan, Hastings
Gisborne

2 months
4 days

McIntosh, Makaraka, Poverty Bay

02/6355

22 October 1902

Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1329
Date of Notice	22 October 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Lindsay	Catherine McIntosh
	💍 1902/6353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	40 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Sherandan, Hastings	Gisborne
Length of Residence	2 months	4 days
Marriage Place	McIntosh, Makaraka, Poverty Bay
Folio	02/6355
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 October 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1330

27 October 1902

Robert McGillivray
Sarah Elizabeth Kett

Robert McGillivray
Sarah Elizabeth Lett
💍 1902/6354

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

28 years
23 years

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 years
2 years

Residence of Mr. Daly, Grey Street, Gisborne

02/6356

27 October 1902

Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1330
Date of Notice	27 October 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert McGillivray	Sarah Elizabeth Kett
BDM Match (98%)	Robert McGillivray	Sarah Elizabeth Lett
	💍 1902/6354
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	28 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Daly, Grey Street, Gisborne
Folio	02/6356
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1331

1 November 1902

Albert Ernest Colebourne
Jessie Isabel Denham

Albert Ernest Colebourne
Jessie Isabel Oxenham
💍 1902/4960

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

24 years
26 years

Kaiti, Poverty Bay
Gisborne

10 years
11 years

Wesleyan Church, Gisborne

02/4870

1 November 1902

Rev. Benj. Frae Rothwell, Wesleyan

No	1331
Date of Notice	1 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Ernest Colebourne	Jessie Isabel Denham
BDM Match (95%)	Albert Ernest Colebourne	Jessie Isabel Oxenham
	💍 1902/4960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	24 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Kaiti, Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Gisborne
Folio	02/4870
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Benj. Frae Rothwell, Wesleyan

1332

4 November 1902

Thomas White Mackinlay
Loretta Madeline Tietjen

Bachelor
Spinster

Decorator

30 years
16 years

Gisborne
Gisborne

6 years
All her life

Residence of Mrs. Tietjen (Mother of Bride), Grey Street, Gisborne

02/6357

Jessie Louisa Tietjen, Mother

4 November 1902

Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1332
Date of Notice	4 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas White Mackinlay	Loretta Madeline Tietjen
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Decorator
Age	30 years	16 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	6 years	All her life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Tietjen (Mother of Bride), Grey Street, Gisborne
Folio	02/6357
Consent	Jessie Louisa Tietjen, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1333

11 November 1902

Frederick Taylor
Maggie Beaver

Frederick Taylor
Maggie Beaver
💍 1902/4961

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic Servant

26 years
25 years

Gisborne
Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay

6 days
2 months

Residence of Mr. C. Taylor, Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay

02/4871

11 November 1902

Rev. Benj. Frae Rothwell & Wesleyan

No	1333
Date of Notice	11 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Taylor	Maggie Beaver
	💍 1902/4961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic Servant
Age	26 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	6 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. C. Taylor, Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay
Folio	02/4871
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Benj. Frae Rothwell & Wesleyan

1334

24 November 1902

James Whitlock
Fanny Moore

James Whitlock
Fanny Moore
💍 1902/4941

Widower
Spinster

Farm Laborer
Domestic Servant

28 years
26 years

Makaraka
Makaraka

3 years
All her life

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

02/4874

24 November 1902

Rev. Walter Welsh, Church of England

No	1334
Date of Notice	24 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Whitlock	Fanny Moore
	💍 1902/4941
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farm Laborer	Domestic Servant
Age	28 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Makaraka	Makaraka
Length of Residence	3 years	All her life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	02/4874
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter Welsh, Church of England

1335

24 November 1902

Howard Luke Humphreys
Margaret Sobers

Howard Luke Humphreys
Margaret Sobers
💍 1902/6337

Bachelor
Spinster

Shop Assistant

23 years
21 years

Whatatupoko
Whatatupoko

All his life
8 years

Residence of Mr. W. Sobers, Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay

02/6358

24 November 1902

Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1335
Date of Notice	24 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Luke Humphreys	Margaret Sobers
	💍 1902/6337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shop Assistant
Age	23 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Whatatupoko	Whatatupoko
Length of Residence	All his life	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Sobers, Whatatupoko, Poverty Bay
Folio	02/6358
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1336

28 November 1902

Andrew Nelson Pollock
Mary Ann Lavina Dephan-Hart

Andrew Nelson Pollock
Mary Ann Lavinia Degham Hart
💍 1902/6338

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Machinist

31 years
28 years

Gisborne
Dunedin

2 months
6 days

Residence of Mr. Pollock, Grey Street, Gisborne

02/6359

28 November 1902

Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1336
Date of Notice	28 November 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Nelson Pollock	Mary Ann Lavina Dephan-Hart
BDM Match (93%)	Andrew Nelson Pollock	Mary Ann Lavinia Degham Hart
	💍 1902/6338
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Machinist
Age	31 years	28 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Pollock, Grey Street, Gisborne
Folio	02/6359
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 November 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

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 1903. 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).