Intentions to Marry, 1903 North Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840423, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, October 10 2025

1903 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 243

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 December 1903

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

114

17 November 1903

Frederick Charles Rowe
Victoria Isabella Hamilton

Frederick Charles Rowe
Victoria Isabella Hamilton
💍 1903/5579

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

23 years
24 years

Rongotea
Palmerston North

6 months
30 days

All Saints Church, Rongotea

03/5470

17 November 1903

Rev. C.C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

No	114
Date of Notice	17 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Rowe	Victoria Isabella Hamilton
	💍 1903/5579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	23 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Rongotea	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 months	30 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Rongotea
Folio	03/5470
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. C.C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

115

18 November 1903

Alfred Bealsin Drew
Henrietta Mary Daly

Alfred Beatson Drew
Henrietta Mary Daly
💍 1903/5611

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

24 years
25 years

Wanganui
Palmerston North

24 years
3 weeks

At the House of Mr. Daly, Palmerston North

03/5481

18 November 1903

Rev. P.W. Symons, Catholic Priest, Palmerston North

No	115
Date of Notice	18 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Bealsin Drew	Henrietta Mary Daly
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Beatson Drew	Henrietta Mary Daly
	💍 1903/5611
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	24 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	24 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	At the House of Mr. Daly, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5481
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. P.W. Symons, Catholic Priest, Palmerston North

116

18 November 1903

Herbert Henry Foster
Violet Kate Grace Butler

Herbert Henry Foster
Violet Kate Grace Butler
💍 1903/720

Bachelor
Spinster

House Decorator

23 years
17 years

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

6 months
8 months

All Saints Church, Palmerston North

03/6712

Edwin Butler, father

18 November 1903

Rev. C.C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

No	116
Date of Notice	18 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Henry Foster	Violet Kate Grace Butler
	💍 1903/720
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	House Decorator
Age	23 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 months	8 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6712
Consent	Edwin Butler, father
Date of Certificate	18 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. C.C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

117

19 November 1903

Herbert Henry Foster
Violet Kate Grace Butler

Herbert Henry Foster
Violet Kate Grace Butler
💍 1903/720

Bachelor
Spinster

House Decorator

23 years
17 years

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

6 months
8 months

Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North

03/6712

Edwin Butler, father

19 November 1903

Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

No	117
Date of Notice	19 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Henry Foster	Violet Kate Grace Butler
	💍 1903/720
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	House Decorator
Age	23 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 months	8 months
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6712
Consent	Edwin Butler, father
Date of Certificate	19 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

118

21 November 1903

Robert William Pope
Beatrice Saylard

Robert William Pope
Beatrice Gaylard
💍 1903/3270

Bachelor
Spinster

Mill Hand
Tailoress

26 years
18 years

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North

03/6711

William Saylard, mother, Chatford

21 November 1903

Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

No	118
Date of Notice	21 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert William Pope	Beatrice Saylard
BDM Match (97%)	Robert William Pope	Beatrice Gaylard
	💍 1903/3270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mill Hand	Tailoress
Age	26 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6711
Consent	William Saylard, mother, Chatford
Date of Certificate	21 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

119

21 November 1903

Stephen John Barry
Rose Cecilia Rush

Stephen John Barry
Rose Cecilia Rush
💍 1903/5612

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

29 years
26 years

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 years
26 years

St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North

03/5482

21 November 1903

Rev. P.W. Symons, Catholic Priest, Palmerston North

No	119
Date of Notice	21 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen John Barry	Rose Cecilia Rush
	💍 1903/5612
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	29 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5482
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. P.W. Symons, Catholic Priest, Palmerston North

120

23 November 1903

Gustave Adolf Schlierike
Alice Mary Pye

Gustave Adolf Schlierike
Alice Mary Pye
💍 1903/355

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic Servant

23 years
20 years

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

10 years
9 years

At the House of Louisa Schlierike, Palmerston North

03/5479

Mary Rye, mother

23 November 1903

Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

No	120
Date of Notice	23 November 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gustave Adolf Schlierike	Alice Mary Pye
	💍 1903/355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic Servant
Age	23 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	10 years	9 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Louisa Schlierike, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5479
Consent	Mary Rye, mother
Date of Certificate	23 November 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

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).