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 242

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

121

1 December 1903

Gustaire Adolph Schlierike
Alice Mary Pye

Gustave Adolf Schlierike
Alice Mary Pye
💍 1903/355

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic Servant

23
20

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

10 years
9 years

At the House of Mary Pye, Palmerston North

03/6713

Mary Pye, mother

1 December 1903

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

No	121
Date of Notice	1 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gustaire Adolph Schlierike	Alice Mary Pye
BDM Match (92%)	Gustave Adolf Schlierike	Alice Mary Pye
	💍 1903/355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic Servant
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	10 years	9 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Mary Pye, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6713
Consent	Mary Pye, mother
Date of Certificate	1 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

122

3 December 1903

George Cuthbert Walter Downey
Ada Constance Bush

George Cuthbert Walter Downey
Ada Constance Bush
💍 1903/731

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

21
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

4 years
2 years

At the House of Harry Downey, Palmerston North

03/6714

Harry Downey, father

3 December 1903

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

No	122
Date of Notice	3 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Cuthbert Walter Downey	Ada Constance Bush
	💍 1903/731
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Harry Downey, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6714
Consent	Harry Downey, father
Date of Certificate	3 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

123

14 December 1903

Charles Frank Giorgi
Lelia Mary Clements

Charles Frank George
Lelia Mary Clements
💍 1903/738

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

25
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

12 years
1 year

At the House of Anna Giorgi, Palmerston North

03/6715

Anna Giorgi, mother

14 December 1903

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

No	123
Date of Notice	14 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frank Giorgi	Lelia Mary Clements
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Frank George	Lelia Mary Clements
	💍 1903/738
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	12 years	1 year
Marriage Place	At the House of Anna Giorgi, Palmerston North
Folio	03/6715
Consent	Anna Giorgi, mother
Date of Certificate	14 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Newbold, Methodist Minister, Palmerston North

124

15 December 1903

Joseph Linklater
Annie Milson

Joseph Linklater
Annie Milson
💍 1903/5585

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

28
20

Bunnythorpe Road, Palmerston North
Bunnythorpe Road, Palmerston North

8 days
20 years

Baptist Church, Palmerston North

03/5475

Robert Milson, father

15 December 1903

Rev. G. Richards, Baptist Minister, Palmerston North

No	124
Date of Notice	15 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Linklater	Annie Milson
	💍 1903/5585
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe Road, Palmerston North	Bunnythorpe Road, Palmerston North
Length of Residence	8 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5475
Consent	Robert Milson, father
Date of Certificate	15 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Richards, Baptist Minister, Palmerston North

125

16 December 1903

Arthur Wakefield Ward
Ida Emma Ames

Arthur Wakefield Ward
Ida Emma Ames
💍 1903/5581

Bachelor
Spinster

Auctioneer

29
23

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

5 years
3 days

All Saints' Church, Palmerston North

03/5471

16 December 1903

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

No	125
Date of Notice	16 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Wakefield Ward	Ida Emma Ames
	💍 1903/5581
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Auctioneer
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5471
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

126

16 December 1903

John Axe
Annie Eliza Thompson Bell

John Ax
Annie Eliza Thompson Bell
💍 1903/5582

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine Driver
Domestic Servant

26
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

26 years
15 years

All Saints' Church, Palmerston North

03/5472

16 December 1903

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

No	126
Date of Notice	16 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Axe	Annie Eliza Thompson Bell
BDM Match (94%)	John Ax	Annie Eliza Thompson Bell
	💍 1903/5582
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver	Domestic Servant
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	26 years	15 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Palmerston North
Folio	03/5472
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. C. Harper, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

127

21 December 1903

Albert Sibbard Bennett
Mabel Margaret Stevens

Albert Gibbard Bennett
Mabel Margaret Stevens
💍 1903/5594

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

33
21

Palmerston North
Kairanga

3 days
16 years

At the residence of R. Stevens, Kairanga

03/5477

R. Stevens, father

21 December 1903

Rev. Jas. Doull, Presbyterian Minister, Bulls

No	127
Date of Notice	21 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Sibbard Bennett	Mabel Margaret Stevens
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Gibbard Bennett	Mabel Margaret Stevens
	💍 1903/5594
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Kairanga
Length of Residence	3 days	16 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of R. Stevens, Kairanga
Folio	03/5477
Consent	R. Stevens, father
Date of Certificate	21 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Doull, Presbyterian Minister, Bulls

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).