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 513

District of Ormondville Quarter ending 31 March 1903 Registrar R. R. Grown

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

109

7 February 1903

Samuel Brook
Agnes Mary Goodwin

Samuel Cook
Agnes Mary Godwin
💍 1903/1431

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

52 years
32 years

Mahatua, Ormondville
Mahatua, Ormondville

4 years
6 months

Residence of Samuel Brook

03/404

7 February 1903

Rev. A. Grant, Presbyterian Minister

No	109
Date of Notice	7 February 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Brook	Agnes Mary Goodwin
BDM Match (89%)	Samuel Cook	Agnes Mary Godwin
	💍 1903/1431
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	52 years	32 years
Dwelling Place	Mahatua, Ormondville	Mahatua, Ormondville
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Samuel Brook
Folio	03/404
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Grant, Presbyterian Minister

110

17 February 1903

Frederick Harry Mitchell
Emma Barnes

Frederick Harry Mitchell
Emma Barnes
💍 1903/1754

Bachelor
Spinster

Wheel-Wright
Domestic duties

25 years
28 years

Ormondville
Ormondville

4 days
20 years

The Church of Epiphany

03/1167

17 February 1903

Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

No	110
Date of Notice	17 February 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Harry Mitchell	Emma Barnes
	💍 1903/1754
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wheel-Wright	Domestic duties
Age	25 years	28 years
Dwelling Place	Ormondville	Ormondville
Length of Residence	4 days	20 years
Marriage Place	The Church of Epiphany
Folio	03/1167
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

111

16 March 1903

Thomas Fothergill
Louisa Grown

Thomas Fothergill
Louisa Groom
💍 1903/1755

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

31 years
22 years

Ormondville
Ormondville

21 years
22 years

The Church of Epiphany

03/1168

16 March 1903

Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

No	111
Date of Notice	16 March 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Fothergill	Louisa Grown
BDM Match (92%)	Thomas Fothergill	Louisa Groom
	💍 1903/1755
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	31 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Ormondville	Ormondville
Length of Residence	21 years	22 years
Marriage Place	The Church of Epiphany
Folio	03/1168
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

112

16 March 1903

Walter William Bossler
Helena Schmidt

Walter William Paul Dassler
Helena Schmidt
💍 1903/1442

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

24 years
24 years

Ormondville
Mahatua, Ormondville

7 years
24 years

The Residence of J. Schmidt (father of bride)

03/405

16 March 1903

Rev. W. W. Ispholm, Lutheran Minister

No	112
Date of Notice	16 March 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter William Bossler	Helena Schmidt
BDM Match (87%)	Walter William Paul Dassler	Helena Schmidt
	💍 1903/1442
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	24 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Ormondville	Mahatua, Ormondville
Length of Residence	7 years	24 years
Marriage Place	The Residence of J. Schmidt (father of bride)
Folio	03/405
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Ispholm, Lutheran Minister

113

20 March 1903

Archibald Stansfield Whitson
Gertrude Hedwig Friberg

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Widower
Spinster

Station-master, Railway
Domestic duties

54 years
26 years

Mahatua, Ormondville
Mahatua, Ormondville

4 1/2 years
20 years

Church of St. Saveurs

03/1169

20 March 1903

Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

No	113
Date of Notice	20 March 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Stansfield Whitson	Gertrude Hedwig Friberg
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Station-master, Railway	Domestic duties
Age	54 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Mahatua, Ormondville	Mahatua, Ormondville
Length of Residence	4 1/2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of St. Saveurs
Folio	03/1169
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon A. J. Webb, Church of England Minister

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).