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 1065

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1903 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

1346

5 January 1903

Maui Wi Naera Piti Pomare
Mildred Amelia (Maia Tapapa) Woodbine-Johnson

Maui Wi Naera Piti Pomare
Mildred Amelia Johnson
💍 1903/631

Bachelor
Spinster

Physician & Surgeon (Health Officer to Maoris)

26 years
25

Wellington
Gisborne; Lavenham, Patutahi, Poverty Bay

18 months
1 week; all her life

Native Church Te Arai Poverty Bay

03/205

5 January 1903

Rev Herbert W Williams, Church of England

No	1346
Date of Notice	5 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maui Wi Naera Piti Pomare	Mildred Amelia (Maia Tapapa) Woodbine-Johnson
BDM Match (74%)	Maui Wi Naera Piti Pomare	Mildred Amelia Johnson
	💍 1903/631
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Physician & Surgeon (Health Officer to Maoris)
Age	26 years	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Gisborne; Lavenham, Patutahi, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	18 months	1 week; all her life
Marriage Place	Native Church Te Arai Poverty Bay
Folio	03/205
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Herbert W Williams, Church of England

1347

6 January 1903

John Erickson
Isabella Menzies

John Erickson
Isabella Menzies
💍 1903/3275

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Boardinghouse keeper

40
48

Gisborne
Gisborne

1 1/2 years
20 years

Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne

03/3286

6 January 1903

Rev Jas Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1347
Date of Notice	6 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Erickson	Isabella Menzies
	💍 1903/3275
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Boardinghouse keeper
Age	40	48
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne
Folio	03/3286
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1348

7 January 1903

Guy Goldthorp Brown
Catherine Mary McRae

Guy Goldthorp Brown
Catherine Mary McRae
💍 1903/623

Widower
Spinster

Stablekeeper

42
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

2 years
6 months

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

03/197

7 January 1903

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	1348
Date of Notice	7 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Guy Goldthorp Brown	Catherine Mary McRae
	💍 1903/623
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Stablekeeper
Age	42	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	2 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	03/197
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

1349

7 January 1903

William George Stephenson
Mary Ellen Jennings

William George Stephenson
Mary Ellen Jennings
💍 1903/637

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

31
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

4 1/2 years
all her life

Res. Rev. Jennings, Whataupoko, Poverty Bay

03/210

7 January 1903

Rev Thos Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

No	1349
Date of Notice	7 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Stephenson	Mary Ellen Jennings
	💍 1903/637
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 1/2 years	all her life
Marriage Place	Res. Rev. Jennings, Whataupoko, Poverty Bay
Folio	03/210
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Thos Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

1350

14 January 1903

Peter Robert Reed
Catherine Connell

Peter Robert Reed
Catherine Connell
💍 1903/638

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
domestic servant

30
26

Gisborne
Gisborne

30 years
6 months

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

03/211

14 January 1903

Rev Thos Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

No	1350
Date of Notice	14 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Robert Reed	Catherine Connell
	💍 1903/638
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	domestic servant
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	30 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	03/211
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Thos Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

1351

14 January 1903

Harry Gordon
Florence Annie Nicholson

Harry Gordon
Florence Ammie Nicolson
💍 1903/624

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawyer

21
21

Waipiro Bay, Gisborne
Waipiro Bay, Gisborne

5 years 4 days
2 years 4 days

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

03/198

14 January 1903

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	1351
Date of Notice	14 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Gordon	Florence Annie Nicholson
BDM Match (94%)	Harry Gordon	Florence Ammie Nicolson
	💍 1903/624
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawyer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Waipiro Bay, Gisborne	Waipiro Bay, Gisborne
Length of Residence	5 years 4 days	2 years 4 days
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne
Folio	03/198
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

1352

19 January 1903

Arthur Stanley Seymour
Flora Hastings Cindy Scordner

Arthur Stanley Seymour
Flora Hastings O'Cinidi Cordner
💍 1903/2969

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

30
23

Gisborne
Rakaia, Canterbury

1 3/4 years
14 years

St. Marks, Church of England, Rakaia, Canterbury

03/2836

19 January 1903

Rev Hugh H. Mathias, Church of England, Rakaia, Canterbury

No	1352
Date of Notice	19 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Stanley Seymour	Flora Hastings Cindy Scordner
BDM Match (90%)	Arthur Stanley Seymour	Flora Hastings O'Cinidi Cordner
	💍 1903/2969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Rakaia, Canterbury
Length of Residence	1 3/4 years	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks, Church of England, Rakaia, Canterbury
Folio	03/2836
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Hugh H. Mathias, Church of England, Rakaia, Canterbury

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).