Intentions to Marry, 1904 North Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840425, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, October 13 2025.

1904 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 238

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1904 Registrar J. 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

1438

27 January 1904

Francis Herbert Oliver
Margaret Campbell Bruce

Francis Herbert Oliver
Margaret Campbell
💍 1904/2973

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer

36 years
30 years

Waipawa
Gisborne

2 years
3 days

The Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne

04/1957

27 January 1904

Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1438
Date of Notice	27 January 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Herbert Oliver	Margaret Campbell Bruce
BDM Match (87%)	Francis Herbert Oliver	Margaret Campbell
	💍 1904/2973
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer
Age	36 years	30 years
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Gisborne
Length of Residence	2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	The Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne
Folio	04/1957
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1439

1 February 1904

Horace Edward Wilkinson
Evelyn May Wood

Lionel Edward Wilkinson
Evelyn May Wood
💍 1904/3467

Bachelor
Spinster

Waiter

21 years
18 years

Gisborne
Kaiti, Gisborne

3 years
12 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

04/234

Charles Wood, father

1 February 1904

Horace Fitzherbert Williams, Deputy Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

No	1439
Date of Notice	1 February 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Edward Wilkinson	Evelyn May Wood
BDM Match (87%)	Lionel Edward Wilkinson	Evelyn May Wood
	💍 1904/3467
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waiter
Age	21 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Kaiti, Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 years	12 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne
Folio	04/234
Consent	Charles Wood, father
Date of Certificate	1 February 1904
Officiating Minister	Horace Fitzherbert Williams, Deputy Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

1440

9 February 1904

George Ross
Clara Minetta Lewis

George Ross
Clara Minetta Lewis
💍 1904/3468

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic

33 years
21 years

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 years
All her life

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

04/235

9 February 1904

Horace Fitzherbert Williams, Deputy Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

No	1440
Date of Notice	9 February 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ross	Clara Minetta Lewis
	💍 1904/3468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic
Age	33 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 years	All her life
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne
Folio	04/235
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1904
Officiating Minister	Horace Fitzherbert Williams, Deputy Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne

1441

16 February 1904

David Todd
Lily Graham

David Todd
Lily Graham
💍 1904/1003

Widower
Spinster

Sheepfarmer

30 years
27 years

Waimata, Poverty Bay
Kaiti, Poverty Bay

11 years
All her life

The Residence of Andrew Graham, Kaiti, Poverty Bay

04/1958

16 February 1904

Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1441
Date of Notice	16 February 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Todd	Lily Graham
	💍 1904/1003
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer
Age	30 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Waimata, Poverty Bay	Kaiti, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	11 years	All her life
Marriage Place	The Residence of Andrew Graham, Kaiti, Poverty Bay
Folio	04/1958
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1442

17 February 1904

John Marigold
Ellen Gertrude Schultz

John Manjold
Ellen Gertrude Schultz
💍 1904/1014

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Housemaid

25 years
20 years

Gisborne
Kaiti, Poverty Bay

6 months
6 years

The St. Andrews Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne

04/1959

George Edward Schulenburg, father

17 February 1904

Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

No	1442
Date of Notice	17 February 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Marigold	Ellen Gertrude Schultz
BDM Match (88%)	John Manjold	Ellen Gertrude Schultz
	💍 1904/1014
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Housemaid
Age	25 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Kaiti, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	6 months	6 years
Marriage Place	The St. Andrews Presbyterian Manse, Gisborne
Folio	04/1959
Consent	George Edward Schulenburg, father
Date of Certificate	17 February 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian

1443

19 February 1904

Samuel Aston
Mary Elizabeth Meale

Samuel Aston
Mary Elizabeth McAleer
💍 1904/3475

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic Servant

22
23

Whataupoko
Onehunga, Poverty Bay

20 years
5 months

Residence of F. H. S. Aston, Whataupoko

04/241

19 February 1904

Rev. Thos. Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

No	1443
Date of Notice	19 February 1904
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Aston	Mary Elizabeth Meale
BDM Match (91%)	Samuel Aston	Mary Elizabeth McAleer
	💍 1904/3475
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic Servant
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Whataupoko	Onehunga, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	20 years	5 months
Marriage Place	Residence of F. H. S. Aston, Whataupoko
Folio	04/241
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1904
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Mulvihill, Roman Catholic

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).