Intentions to Marry, 1906 Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840430, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 093

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1906 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

495

23 June 1906

Herbert Leigh McKinstry
Ellen Turner

Herbert Leigh McKinstry
Ellen Turner
💍 1906/471

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

22
25

Auckland
Auckland

22 years
7 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Mt Roskill

06/1777

23 June 1906

Rev. E. Warburton, Primitive Methodist

No	495
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Leigh McKinstry	Ellen Turner
	💍 1906/471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	22 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Mt Roskill
Folio	06/1777
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Warburton, Primitive Methodist

496

23 June 1906

Patrick Tuohey
Margaret Maher

Patrick Tuohey
Margaret Maher
💍 1906/405

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
22

Auckland
Auckland

30 years
22 years

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

06/1732

23 June 1906

Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

No	496
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Tuohey	Margaret Maher
	💍 1906/405
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	30 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	06/1732
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

497

23 June 1906

Charles Thaxter Copland
Elizabeth Margaret Thomas

Charles Thaxter Copland
Elizabeth Margaret Thomas
💍 1906/239

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
22

Auckland
Auckland

11 years
22 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

06/1562

23 June 1906

E. H. Lyons, Registrar

No	497
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Thaxter Copland	Elizabeth Margaret Thomas
	💍 1906/239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	06/1562
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

498

23 June 1906

Alexander Mitchell
Elsie May Keogh, known as Dobbs

Alexander Mitchell
Elsie May Dobbs
💍 1906/4632

Bachelor
Spinster

Trainer

28
22

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
10 years

House of Mr. J. Dobbs, Parnell

06/1776

23 June 1906

Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

No	498
Date of Notice	23 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Mitchell	Elsie May Keogh, known as Dobbs
BDM Match (74%)	Alexander Mitchell	Elsie May Dobbs
	💍 1906/4632
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Trainer
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. J. Dobbs, Parnell
Folio	06/1776
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

499

25 June 1906

John Hans
Catherine Silva

John Hans
Catherine Silva
💍 1906/470

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
21

Auckland
Auckland

24 years
2 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Alexandra St.

06/1775

25 June 1906

Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

No	499
Date of Notice	25 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hans	Catherine Silva
	💍 1906/470
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	24 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Alexandra St.
Folio	06/1775
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

500

25 June 1906

Norman Hugh McDonald
Virginia Eleanor Lowther

Norman Hugh McDonald
Virginia Eleanor Lowther
💍 1906/321

Bachelor
Spinster

Bridge Carpenter

31
29

Auckland
Auckland

4 weeks
10 years

Epiphany Church, Auckland

06/1623

25 June 1906

Rev. W. E. Lush, Church of England

No	500
Date of Notice	25 June 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Hugh McDonald	Virginia Eleanor Lowther
	💍 1906/321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bridge Carpenter
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 weeks	10 years
Marriage Place	Epiphany Church, Auckland
Folio	06/1623
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Lush, 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).