Intentions to Marry, 1905 Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840427, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 307

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar H William Ross

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

22 May 1905

Roy Houghey
Rosa Lidgard

Roy Huxley
Rosa Lidgard
💍 1905/6644

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman
Domestic duties

30
23

Thames
Thames

2 years
23 years

at the house of Mr Lidgard, Parawai, Thames

05/1938

22 May 1905

Rev. R Taylor, Wesleyan Methodist

No	24
Date of Notice	22 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Houghey	Rosa Lidgard
BDM Match (86%)	Roy Huxley	Rosa Lidgard
	💍 1905/6644
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman	Domestic duties
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 years	23 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr Lidgard, Parawai, Thames
Folio	05/1938
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. R Taylor, Wesleyan Methodist

29 May 1905

Ernest Wyatt
Amy Williams

Ernest Wyatt
Amy Williams
💍 1905/6627

Nicholas Murtagh McCarthy
Amy Williams
💍 1905/6915

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic duties

30
28

Thames
Thames

30 years
28 years

at the house of Mr Williams, Thames

05/1934

29 May 1905

Rev. A. J. Thompson, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	29 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Wyatt	Amy Williams
	💍 1905/6627
BDM Match (60%)	Nicholas Murtagh McCarthy	Amy Williams
	💍 1905/6915
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic duties
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	30 years	28 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr Williams, Thames
Folio	05/1934
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Thompson, Presbyterian

6 June 1905

Tom Eden Brown
Elizabeth Cooke

Tom Eden Brown
Elizabeth Cooke
💍 1905/6638

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman
Domestic duties

26
27

Puriri
Matatoke

16 years
22 years

at the house of Mr Cooke, Matatoke

05/1935

6 June 1905

Rev. A. J. Thompson, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	6 June 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tom Eden Brown	Elizabeth Cooke
	💍 1905/6638
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman	Domestic duties
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Puriri	Matatoke
Length of Residence	16 years	22 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr Cooke, Matatoke
Folio	05/1935
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 June 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Thompson, Presbyterian

20 June 1905

Herbert Edward Blank
Catherine Gillespie

Herbert Edward Clark
Katherine Gillespie
💍 1905/6647

Bachelor
Spinster

Block
Domestic duties

38
38

Thames
Thames

3 days
30 years

Church of England, Thames

05/1941

21 June 1905

Rev. D. J. Coneagham, Church of England

No	27
Date of Notice	20 June 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Edward Blank	Catherine Gillespie
BDM Match (92%)	Herbert Edward Clark	Katherine Gillespie
	💍 1905/6647
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Block	Domestic duties
Age	38	38
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	30 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Thames
Folio	05/1941
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 June 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. J. Coneagham, Church of England

22 June 1905

Sidney Herbert Wright
Ethel Daunton

Sidney Herbert Wright
Ethel Brunton
💍 1905/6643

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

22
21

Puriri
Puriri

22 years
1 year

at the Registrar's Office, Thames

05/1937

22 June 1905

H William Ross, Registrar

No	28
Date of Notice	22 June 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Herbert Wright	Ethel Daunton
BDM Match (92%)	Sidney Herbert Wright	Ethel Brunton
	💍 1905/6643
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Puriri	Puriri
Length of Residence	22 years	1 year
Marriage Place	at the Registrar's Office, Thames
Folio	05/1937
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1905
Officiating Minister	H William Ross, Registrar

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).