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 724

District of Stratford Quarter ending 31 March 1906 Registrar Sydney Henry James

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

11 January 1906

Charles Richard Halsey
Elizabeth Cecilia Best

Charles Richard Halsey
Elizabeth Cecilia Best
💍 1906/1620

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
23

Stratford
Stratford

18 months
10 years

The Primitive Methodist Church, Stratford

06/360

11 January 1906

Rev. J. Bloner, Primitive Methodist

No	1
Date of Notice	11 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Richard Halsey	Elizabeth Cecilia Best
	💍 1906/1620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	18 months	10 years
Marriage Place	The Primitive Methodist Church, Stratford
Folio	06/360
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Bloner, Primitive Methodist

13 January 1906

Samuel Thomas Robert Burrell
Jane Elizabeth Hatcher

Samuel Thomas Robert Burrell
Jane Elizabeth Hatcher
💍 1906/1599

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
20

Stratford
Stratford

24 years
18 years

The Office of the Registrar, Stratford

06/355

William Hatcher, father

13 January 1906

S. H. James, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	13 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Thomas Robert Burrell	Jane Elizabeth Hatcher
	💍 1906/1599
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	20
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	24 years	18 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar, Stratford
Folio	06/355
Consent	William Hatcher, father
Date of Certificate	13 January 1906
Officiating Minister	S. H. James, Registrar

29 January 1906

Albert William Tisch
Rebecca Sills

Albert William Tisch
Rebecca Sills
💍 1906/1621

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
31

Stratford
Stratford

20 years
10 months

Residence of J. Garlick, Warwick Road, Stratford

06/361

29 January 1906

Rev. J. W. Griffin, Wesleyan

No	3
Date of Notice	29 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert William Tisch	Rebecca Sills
	💍 1906/1621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	20 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Garlick, Warwick Road, Stratford
Folio	06/361
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Griffin, Wesleyan

2 February 1906

David Hosie
Amy Lake Base

David Hosie
Amy Lake Case
💍 1906/1610

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver

47
26

Napier
Midhirst

5 months
24 years

Office of the Registrar, Stratford

06/356

2 February 1906

S. H. James, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	2 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Hosie	Amy Lake Base
BDM Match (96%)	David Hosie	Amy Lake Case
	💍 1906/1610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver
Age	47	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Midhirst
Length of Residence	5 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Stratford
Folio	06/356
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1906
Officiating Minister	S. H. James, Registrar

3 February 1906

Joseph Miller
Annie Rzooka

Joseph Miller
Annie Rzoska
💍 1906/1602

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

35
21

Waipuku
Waipuku

6 years
2 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

06/366

3 February 1906

Rev. P. Treacy, Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	3 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Miller	Annie Rzooka
BDM Match (96%)	Joseph Miller	Annie Rzoska
	💍 1906/1602
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	35	21
Dwelling Place	Waipuku	Waipuku
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	06/366
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Treacy, Roman Catholic

6 February 1906

Arthur Ernest Hamilton Styles
Esther Wadham

Arthur Ernest Hamilton Styles
Esther Wadham
💍 1906/1622

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

23
21

Stratford
Stratford

5 months
1 month

Residence of A. E. H. Styles, Stratford

06/362

6 February 1906

Rev. J. Griffin, Wesleyan

No	6
Date of Notice	6 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Ernest Hamilton Styles	Esther Wadham
	💍 1906/1622
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	5 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of A. E. H. Styles, Stratford
Folio	06/362
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Griffin, Wesleyan

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).