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 1059

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 September 1903 Registrar George John Alexander Johnston

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

1395

1 July 1903

Samuel James Morgan
Lilly Maud Morgan

Samuel James Morgan
Lily Maud Morgan
💍 1903/3993

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26 years
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

4 days
all her life

Res. of Mr M. G. Morgan, Childers Rd, Gisborne

03/3476

1 July 1903

Rev. B. F. Rothwell, Wesleyan

No	1395
Date of Notice	1 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel James Morgan	Lilly Maud Morgan
BDM Match (97%)	Samuel James Morgan	Lily Maud Morgan
	💍 1903/3993
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26 years	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 days	all her life
Marriage Place	Res. of Mr M. G. Morgan, Childers Rd, Gisborne
Folio	03/3476
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. F. Rothwell, Wesleyan

1396

4 July 1903

John Woodward Richardson
Alice Lydia Mill

John Woodward Richardson
Alice Lydia Mills
💍 1903/3989

Bachelor
Spinster

Drover
Domestic Servant

27
21

Makauri, Poverty Bay
Matawhero

7 1/2 years
10

Presbyterian Church at Matawhero

03/3472

4 July 1903

Rev. Robt. Gardner, Presbyterian

No	1396
Date of Notice	4 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Woodward Richardson	Alice Lydia Mill
BDM Match (97%)	John Woodward Richardson	Alice Lydia Mills
	💍 1903/3989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drover	Domestic Servant
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Makauri, Poverty Bay	Matawhero
Length of Residence	7 1/2 years	10
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church at Matawhero
Folio	03/3472
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robt. Gardner, Presbyterian

1397

10 July 1903

John Mallory Grayson
Nora May Stephenson

John Mallory Grayson
Norah Mary Stephenson
💍 1903/4007

Bachelor
Spinster

Overseer

30
22

Gisborne
Matawhero, Poverty Bay

11
all her life

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

03/3466

10 July 1903

Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

No	1397
Date of Notice	10 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Mallory Grayson	Nora May Stephenson
BDM Match (95%)	John Mallory Grayson	Norah Mary Stephenson
	💍 1903/4007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Overseer
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Matawhero, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	11	all her life
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	03/3466
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

1398

14 July 1903

Francis Edwin Loomb
Alice Taylor

Francis Edwin Loomb
Alice Taylor
💍 1903/4018

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
24

Gisborne
Gisborne

11 years
all her life

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

03/3551

14 July 1903

Rev. Walter Welsh, Church of England

No	1398
Date of Notice	14 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Edwin Loomb	Alice Taylor
	💍 1903/4018
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	11 years	all her life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	03/3551
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter Welsh, Church of England

1399

14 July 1903

Paul Douglas Speedy
Mildred Morrison

Paul Douglas Speedy
Mildred Morrison
💍 1903/3990

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer

23
21

Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay
Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay

5 years
2

Res. of Mr Samuel Morrison, Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay

03/3473

14 July 1903

Rev. Robt. Gardner, Presbyterian

No	1399
Date of Notice	14 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paul Douglas Speedy	Mildred Morrison
	💍 1903/3990
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay	Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	5 years	2
Marriage Place	Res. of Mr Samuel Morrison, Waerengaokuri, Poverty Bay
Folio	03/3473
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robt. Gardner, Presbyterian

1400

14 July 1903

George Murtagh
Betsy Darvill
formerly West

George Murtagh
Betsy Darvill
💍 1903/4008

Bachelor
A married woman whose husband has been continually absent from her during the space of seven years last past & has not been known by her to be living within that time

Laborer
Laundress

48
40

Gisborne
Gisborne

17
3

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

03/3467

14 July 1903

Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

No	1400
Date of Notice	14 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Murtagh	Betsy Darvill formerly West
	💍 1903/4008
Condition	Bachelor	A married woman whose husband has been continually absent from her during the space of seven years last past & has not been known by her to be living within that time
Profession	Laborer	Laundress
Age	48	40
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	17	3
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	03/3467
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

1401

16 July 1903

Edward Cornwall Clark
Blanche Butte

Edward Cornwall Clark
Blanche Butler
💍 1903/4009

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

8
1

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

03/3468

16 July 1903

Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

No	1401
Date of Notice	16 July 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Cornwall Clark	Blanche Butte
BDM Match (93%)	Edward Cornwall Clark	Blanche Butler
	💍 1903/4009
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8	1
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	03/3468
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1903
Officiating Minister	Reg. Marriages, Gisborne

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).