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 086

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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

448

22 May 1907

Robert Francis Richards
Florence Mildred Clark

Not married see letter attached

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
22

Auckland
Auckland

23 years
5 months

House of father of bridegroom, York Street, Auckland

22 May 1907

Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

No	448
Date of Notice	22 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Francis Richards	Florence Mildred Clark
	💍 Not married see letter attached
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	23 years	5 months
Marriage Place	House of father of bridegroom, York Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

449

22 May 1907

Sydney John Ashdown
Martha Henry

Sydney John Henry Ashdown
Martha Norris
💍 1907/2194

Bachelor
Spinster

Gas Plumber

26
23

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
23 years

House of Rev. M. Walker, Wellington Street

07/2294

22 May 1907

Rev. M. Walker, Church of Our Father

No	449
Date of Notice	22 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney John Ashdown	Martha Henry
BDM Match (69%)	Sydney John Henry Ashdown	Martha Norris
	💍 1907/2194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gas Plumber
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	23 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. M. Walker, Wellington Street
Folio	07/2294
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Walker, Church of Our Father

450

22 May 1907

Sydney Arthur Walkers
Maude Ethel Harrop

Sydney Arthur Walters
Maude Ethel Harrop
💍 1907/2676

Bachelor
Spinster

Barter

25
21

Auckland
Auckland

10 years
4 years

House of father of bride, Rose Road, Grey Lynn

07/2792

22 May 1907

Rev. J. Wilson, Methodist

No	450
Date of Notice	22 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Arthur Walkers	Maude Ethel Harrop
BDM Match (98%)	Sydney Arthur Walters	Maude Ethel Harrop
	💍 1907/2676
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barter
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	House of father of bride, Rose Road, Grey Lynn
Folio	07/2792
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilson, Methodist

451

23 May 1907

James Ernest Boyce
May Nolan

James Ernest Boyce
May Nolan
💍 1907/2240

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram Conductor

25
25

Auckland
Auckland

1 year
25 years

Methodist Church, Pitt Street, Auckland

07/2367

23 May 1907

Rev. J. A. Luxford, Methodist

No	451
Date of Notice	23 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Ernest Boyce	May Nolan
	💍 1907/2240
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	25 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Pitt Street, Auckland
Folio	07/2367
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Luxford, Methodist

452

23 May 1907

John Alphonso Leahy
Isabella Jane Stephenson

John Alphonso Leahy
Isabella Stephenson
💍 1907/4855

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

30
30

Auckland
Auckland

3 weeks
30 years

Roman Catholic Church, Boyle Street, Parnell

07/4295

23 May 1907

Rev. J. P. Kehoe, Roman Catholic

No	452
Date of Notice	23 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alphonso Leahy	Isabella Jane Stephenson
BDM Match (90%)	John Alphonso Leahy	Isabella Stephenson
	💍 1907/4855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 weeks	30 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Boyle Street, Parnell
Folio	07/4295
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Kehoe, Roman Catholic

453

23 May 1907

Ernest Edward Noone
Ivy Ethelwald O'Gara

Ernest Edward Noone
Ivy Ethelwald OGara
💍 1907/4568

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

22
19

Auckland
Auckland

22 years
19 years

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

07/3903

James O'Gara, father

23 May 1907

Rev. A. Farthing, Roman Catholic

No	453
Date of Notice	23 May 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edward Noone	Ivy Ethelwald O'Gara
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Edward Noone	Ivy Ethelwald OGara
	💍 1907/4568
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	22 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	07/3903
Consent	James O'Gara, father
Date of Certificate	23 May 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Farthing, Roman Catholic

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).