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 326

District of Te Aroha Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar John George Beswick

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

4 April 1905

Noble Bruno Peters
Phoebe Jane Torbett

Noble Bruno Peters
Phoebe Jane Torbett
💍 1905/6583

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

26
18

Te Aroha
Te Aroha

2 years
10 Months

Presbyterian Church at Te Aroha

05/1922

Margaret Torbett, Mother

4 April 1905

Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	4 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Noble Bruno Peters	Phoebe Jane Torbett
	💍 1905/6583
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Te Aroha	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	2 years	10 Months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church at Te Aroha
Folio	05/1922
Consent	Margaret Torbett, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

5 April 1905

James Hamilton
Annie Baker

James Hamilton
Annie Baker
💍 1905/6584

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

25
20

Te Aroha
Te Aroha

6 years

In the dwelling of John Baker

05/1923

Annie Baker, Mother

5 April 1905

Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	5 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hamilton	Annie Baker
	💍 1905/6584
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Te Aroha	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	6 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling of John Baker
Folio	05/1923
Consent	Annie Baker, Mother
Date of Certificate	5 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

10 April 1905

Seymour Frederick Hughes
Florence Louisa Watts

Seymour Frederick Hughes
Florence Louisa Watts
💍 1905/6585

Bachelor
Spinster

Cordial Manufacturer
Domestic duties

24
19

Naharoa
Naharoa

4 days
2 Weeks

In Hall owned by his premises of Albert Watts at Naharoa

05/1924

Albert Watts, Father

10 April 1905

Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	10 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Seymour Frederick Hughes	Florence Louisa Watts
	💍 1905/6585
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cordial Manufacturer	Domestic duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Naharoa	Naharoa
Length of Residence	4 days	2 Weeks
Marriage Place	In Hall owned by his premises of Albert Watts at Naharoa
Folio	05/1924
Consent	Albert Watts, Father
Date of Certificate	10 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Walls, Presbyterian

12 May 1905

Patrick Scally
Ellen Theresa Parker M.N. Cussen

Patrick Scally
Ellen Theresa Parker
💍 1905/1436

Widower
Widow

Farmer
Farmer

64
45

Woodville (at present Te Aroha)
Maingatoinoke (at present Te Aroha)

10 days
10 days

In the Catholic Church at Te Aroha

05/3853

12 May 1905

Rev. James McGuinness, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	12 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Scally	Ellen Theresa Parker M.N. Cussen
BDM Match (81%)	Patrick Scally	Ellen Theresa Parker
	💍 1905/1436
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Farmer	Farmer
Age	64	45
Dwelling Place	Woodville (at present Te Aroha)	Maingatoinoke (at present Te Aroha)
Length of Residence	10 days	10 days
Marriage Place	In the Catholic Church at Te Aroha
Folio	05/3853
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. James McGuinness, Roman Catholic

7 June 1905

John Gay Butterworth
Sarah Elizabeth Wild

John Gay Butterworth
Sarah Elizabeth Wild
💍 1905/6586

Bachelor
Spinster

Creamery Manager

32
23

Te Aroha
Te Aroha

2 years
5 years

In the Anglican Church Te Aroha

05/1925

7 June 1905

Rev. E. W. Bowie, Anglican

No	12
Date of Notice	7 June 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gay Butterworth	Sarah Elizabeth Wild
	💍 1905/6586
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Creamery Manager
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Te Aroha	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	In the Anglican Church Te Aroha
Folio	05/1925
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 June 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. W. Bowie, Anglican

13 June 1905

Hector Joseph O'Halloran
Mary Ann Lipsey

Hector Joseph O'Halloran
Mary Ann Lipsey
💍 1905/6587

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
19

Te Aroha
Te Aroha

14 days
19 years

In the office of the Registrar at Te Aroha

05/1926

George Lipsey, Father

13 June 1905

Registrar of Marriages

No	13
Date of Notice	13 June 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector Joseph O'Halloran	Mary Ann Lipsey
	💍 1905/6587
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Te Aroha	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	14 days	19 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar at Te Aroha
Folio	05/1926
Consent	George Lipsey, Father
Date of Certificate	13 June 1905
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages

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).