Intentions to Marry, 1907 Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840433, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1907 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1907a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1907b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1907c).

Page 023

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 March 1907 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

31 January 1907

Frederick May Wilson
Elsie Ingham Spinley

Frederick May Wilson
Elsie Ingham Spinley
💍 1907/8320

Widower
Spinster

Engineer

39
33

Auckland
Auckland

1 1/2 years
30 years

St. Mathews Church

07/134

31 January 1907

Rev W E Gillam, Church of England

No	85
Date of Notice	31 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick May Wilson	Elsie Ingham Spinley
	💍 1907/8320
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	39	33
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	30 years
Marriage Place	St. Mathews Church
Folio	07/134
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev W E Gillam, Church of England

31 January 1907

William Wealtry Brown-Clayton
Evelyn Agnes Scherff

William Dealtry Browne-Clayton
Evelyn Agnes Scherff
💍 1907/8328

Bachelor
Spinster

Gentleman

38
35

Auckland
Auckland

1 month
35 years

St. Pauls Church

07/217

31 January 1907

Revd C. M. Nelson, Church of England

No	86
Date of Notice	31 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Wealtry Brown-Clayton	Evelyn Agnes Scherff
BDM Match (97%)	William Dealtry Browne-Clayton	Evelyn Agnes Scherff
	💍 1907/8328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gentleman
Age	38	35
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 month	35 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church
Folio	07/217
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Revd C. M. Nelson, Church of England

31 January 1907

Henry Lucas
May Francis

Henry Lucas
May Francis
💍 1907/8290

Widower
Spinster

Cooper

29
31

Auckland
Hows St. Auckland

4 months
4 months

House of Rev. M. Walker, c/. Wellington & Hows St. Auckland

07/28

31 January 1907

Rev. M. Walker, Church of our Father

No	87
Date of Notice	31 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Lucas	May Francis
	💍 1907/8290
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Cooper
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Hows St. Auckland
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	House of Rev. M. Walker, c/. Wellington & Hows St. Auckland
Folio	07/28
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Walker, Church of our Father

31 January 1907

James Spearpoint
Nora Ellen Scanlan

James Spearpoint
Norah Ellen Scanlan
💍 1907/8321

Bachelor
Spinster

Tanner

29
27

Auckland
Auckland

8 months
1 year

St. Mathews Church

07/135

31 January 1907

Rev W. E. Gillam, Church of England

No	88
Date of Notice	31 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Spearpoint	Nora Ellen Scanlan
BDM Match (97%)	James Spearpoint	Norah Ellen Scanlan
	💍 1907/8321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tanner
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Mathews Church
Folio	07/135
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev W. E. Gillam, Church of England

1 February 1907

Nils Einar Robert Kelsen
Mary Anne Patterson

Nils Einar Robert Nilsen
Mary Anne Patterson
💍 1907/184

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

21
24

Auckland
Auckland

2 1/2 years
3 years

Registrar's Office

07/197

1 February 1907

E. H. Lyons, Registrar

No	89
Date of Notice	1 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nils Einar Robert Kelsen	Mary Anne Patterson
BDM Match (96%)	Nils Einar Robert Nilsen	Mary Anne Patterson
	💍 1907/184
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	21	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	07/197
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1907
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

1 February 1907

Herbert Arbon Couldrey
Rose Trust

Herbert Arbon Couldrey
Rose Trust
💍 1907/60

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

34
24

Auckland
Whitford

30 years
24 years

House of father of Bride

07/20

1 February 1907

Rev. Alex Would, Presbyterian

No	90
Date of Notice	1 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Arbon Couldrey	Rose Trust
	💍 1907/60
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Whitford
Length of Residence	30 years	24 years
Marriage Place	House of father of Bride
Folio	07/20
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex Would, Presbyterian

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).