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 780

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar Edmund Humphrey Lyons

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

313

28 April 1905

James Cross
Amy Violet Shrander

James Cross
Amy Violet Mander
💍 1905/6616

Bachelor
Spinster

Native Interpreter

24
19

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
3 years

House of J. Clark, Whitaker Place

05/1803

28 April 1905

Rev. J. Clark, Baptist

No	313
Date of Notice	28 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Cross	Amy Violet Shrander
BDM Match (92%)	James Cross	Amy Violet Mander
	💍 1905/6616
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Native Interpreter
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	House of J. Clark, Whitaker Place
Folio	05/1803
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Clark, Baptist

314

28 April 1905

Albert Victor Dye
Margaret Lyons

Albert Victor Dye
Margaret Lyons
💍 1905/5136

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

25
23

Auckland
Auckland

2 years
14 years

Church of Epiphany

05/1681

28 April 1905

Rev. W. E. Lush, Church of England

No	314
Date of Notice	28 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Victor Dye	Margaret Lyons
	💍 1905/5136
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Church of Epiphany
Folio	05/1681
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Lush, Church of England

315

29 April 1905

Reginald Darke
Priscilla Grace Shepherd

Reginald Darke
Priscilla Grace Shepherd
💍 1905/6446

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
16

Auckland
Auckland

11 days
4 years

Registrar's Office

05/1630

William Shepherd, Father

29 April 1905

E. H. Lyons, Registrar

No	315
Date of Notice	29 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Darke	Priscilla Grace Shepherd
	💍 1905/6446
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	16
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	05/1630
Consent	William Shepherd, Father
Date of Certificate	29 April 1905
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

316

29 April 1905

Ernest Colson
Lillian Edwards

Ernest Colson
Lillian Edwards
💍 1905/7280

Bachelor
Spinster

Land Agent

34
23

Auckland
England

23 years
23 years

Church of All Roskill

05/1973

29 April 1905

Rev. H. B. Warfield, Church of England

No	316
Date of Notice	29 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Colson	Lillian Edwards
	💍 1905/7280
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Land Agent
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	England
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Church of All Roskill
Folio	05/1973
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Warfield, Church of England

317

1 May 1905

John Mark Harrison
Caroline Lottie Weal

John Mark Maddison Harrison
Caroline Lottie Weal
💍 1905/6447

Bachelor
Spinster

Cattle Dealer

22
21

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
2 weeks

Registrar's Office

05/1631

1 May 1905

E. H. Lyons, Registrar

No	317
Date of Notice	1 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Mark Harrison	Caroline Lottie Weal
BDM Match (83%)	John Mark Maddison Harrison	Caroline Lottie Weal
	💍 1905/6447
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cattle Dealer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	05/1631
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1905
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

318

1 May 1905

Russell Bedford Graham
Florence Mary Rylance

Russell Bedford Graham
Florence May Rylance
💍 1905/6930

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
23

Auckland
Auckland

5 days
23 years

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

05/2506

1 May 1905

Rev. W. E. Fellow, Church of England

No	318
Date of Notice	1 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Russell Bedford Graham	Florence Mary Rylance
BDM Match (98%)	Russell Bedford Graham	Florence May Rylance
	💍 1905/6930
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio	05/2506
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Fellow, Church of England

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).