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 328

District of Mangaweka Quarter ending 31 March 1903 Registrar Ernest Walter Tompkins

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

2 January 1903

Alfred Castle Lambess
Alice Maud Tidswell

Alfred Castle Lambess
Alice Maud Tidswell
💍 1903/829

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic

22
21

Taihape
Taihape

8 years
4 years

Registry Office

03/474

2 January 1903

Registrar, Mangaweka

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Castle Lambess	Alice Maud Tidswell
	💍 1903/829
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Taihape
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registry Office
Folio	03/474
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1903
Officiating Minister	Registrar, Mangaweka

12 February 1903

John Denis Murphy
Christina Elizabeth Hart

John Denis Murphy
Christina Elizabeth Hart
💍 1903/1794

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Dressmaker

28
23

Mangaweka
Mangaweka

Three days
Three days

Presbyterian Church

03/555

12 February 1903

Rev. David Gordon

No	2
Date of Notice	12 February 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Denis Murphy	Christina Elizabeth Hart
	💍 1903/1794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Dressmaker
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Mangaweka	Mangaweka
Length of Residence	Three days	Three days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	03/555
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Gordon

10 February 1903

Joseph B. Floyd
Betsie Lowe

Joseph Floyd
Betsie Lowe
💍 1903/835

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic

24
17

Mangaweka
Hautapu

Five years
Two years

Registry Office

03/477

Samuel Lowe, Father

17 February 1903

Registrar, Mangaweka

No	3
Date of Notice	10 February 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph B. Floyd	Betsie Lowe
BDM Match (90%)	Joseph Floyd	Betsie Lowe
	💍 1903/835
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Mangaweka	Hautapu
Length of Residence	Five years	Two years
Marriage Place	Registry Office
Folio	03/477
Consent	Samuel Lowe, Father
Date of Certificate	17 February 1903
Officiating Minister	Registrar, Mangaweka

11 March 1903

Caleb Russell Penman
Mary Hinderson

Caleb Russell Penman
Mary Henderson
💍 1903/755

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway servant
Domestic

28
19

Mangaweka
Palmerston North

Six months
Ten years

All Saints Church

03/579

Parents, Palmerston North

11 March 1903

Rev. Charles Coleridge Harper

No	4
Date of Notice	11 March 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Caleb Russell Penman	Mary Hinderson
BDM Match (96%)	Caleb Russell Penman	Mary Henderson
	💍 1903/755
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway servant	Domestic
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Mangaweka	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	Six months	Ten years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church
Folio	03/579
Consent	Parents, Palmerston North
Date of Certificate	11 March 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Coleridge Harper

25 March 1903

Thomas Lovejoy
Annie Christina Campbell Bowie

Thomas Lovejoy
Annie Christine Campbell Bowie
💍 1903/3041

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent
Domestic

28
25

Mangaweka
Mangaweka

Two months
Four years

Church of England

03/0926

25 March 1903

Rev. Percy Wise Clarkson

No	5
Date of Notice	25 March 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Lovejoy	Annie Christina Campbell Bowie
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Lovejoy	Annie Christine Campbell Bowie
	💍 1903/3041
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent	Domestic
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Mangaweka	Mangaweka
Length of Residence	Two months	Four years
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	03/0926
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Percy Wise Clarkson

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).