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 749

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 30 September 1905

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

498

6 July 1905

John Morshead
Ethel Maud Spencer

John Morshead
Ethel Maude Spencer
💍 1905/1233

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

22
21

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
2 years

All Saints Church, Auckland

05/3667

6 July 1905

Rev. Arch. W. Calder, Church of England

No	498
Date of Notice	6 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Morshead	Ethel Maud Spencer
BDM Match (97%)	John Morshead	Ethel Maude Spencer
	💍 1905/1233
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Auckland
Folio	05/3667
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Arch. W. Calder, Church of England

499

7 July 1905

Herbert Horace Coyle
Elizabeth Helen Fordyce

Herbert Florence Coyle
Elizabeth Helen Fordyce
💍 1905/1253

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

28
21

Auckland
Auckland

18 years
20 years

House of Allden

05/3687

7 July 1905

Rev. W. H. [illegible], Presbyterian

No	499
Date of Notice	7 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Horace Coyle	Elizabeth Helen Fordyce
BDM Match (91%)	Herbert Florence Coyle	Elizabeth Helen Fordyce
	💍 1905/1253
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	18 years	20 years
Marriage Place	House of Allden
Folio	05/3687
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. [illegible], Presbyterian

500

7 July 1905

John Richard Neville
Violet Mary Hood

Bachelor
Spinster

Iron Moulder

30
27

Auckland
Auckland

9 months
27 years

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

Marriage not celebrated, bride absconded

7 July 1905

Rev. W. E. Fillan, Church of England

No	500
Date of Notice	7 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Richard Neville	Violet Mary Hood
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Iron Moulder
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	9 months	27 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio	Marriage not celebrated, bride absconded
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Fillan, Church of England

501

7 July 1905

Robert Kerr
Annie Mary Carroll

Robert Kerr
Annie Mary Carroll
💍 1905/2908

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

25
23

Auckland
Auckland

11 years
23 years

St. Mary's Church, Parnell, Roman Catholic

05/5399

7 July 1905

Rev. J. P. Kehoe, Roman Catholic

No	501
Date of Notice	7 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Kerr	Annie Mary Carroll
	💍 1905/2908
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Parnell, Roman Catholic
Folio	05/5399
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Kehoe, Roman Catholic

502

7 July 1905

William Joseph Judd
Annie Louisa Hunt

William Joseph Judd
Anne Louisa Hunt
💍 1905/1916

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

25
23

Auckland
Auckland

14 years
23 years

St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell

05/4387

7 July 1905

Rev. J. Chachury, Church of England

No	502
Date of Notice	7 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Judd	Annie Louisa Hunt
BDM Match (97%)	William Joseph Judd	Anne Louisa Hunt
	💍 1905/1916
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	14 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell
Folio	05/4387
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Chachury, Church of England

503

7 July 1905

Walter Gerrard
Jane Cowley

Walter Gerrard
Jane Cowley
💍 1905/1313

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

34
22

Auckland
Auckland

10 years
15 years

Congregational Church, Beresford Street

05/3746

7 July 1905

Rev. J. Wilkins, Congregational

No	503
Date of Notice	7 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Gerrard	Jane Cowley
	💍 1905/1313
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Beresford Street
Folio	05/3746
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilkins, Congregational

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 1908. 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).