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 381

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 30 September 1907 Registrar Frederick Bew

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

8 April 1907

William Carsley
Edith Waddy Coslett

William Carsley Morrin
Edith Waddy Cosslett
💍 1907/5108

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Domestic duties

27
27

Rotorua (usual Otahuhu)
Rotorua (usual Auckland)

3 days
3 weeks

St. Luke's Church, Rotorua

07/4689

8 July 1907

Rev. Charles Archibald Tisdall

No	15
Date of Notice	8 April 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Carsley	Edith Waddy Coslett
BDM Match (82%)	William Carsley Morrin	Edith Waddy Cosslett
	💍 1907/5108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Domestic duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Rotorua (usual Otahuhu)	Rotorua (usual Auckland)
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church, Rotorua
Folio	07/4689
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Archibald Tisdall

22 July 1907

Thomas Frederick Jolly
Lena Randle

Thomas Frederick Jolly
Lenna Randle
💍 1907/5082

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant
Household duties

31
27

Hamilton
Rotorua

31 years England
about 4 years

Church of Hamilton

07/4688

22 July 1907

Rev. C. A. Tisdall

No	16
Date of Notice	22 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Frederick Jolly	Lena Randle
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Frederick Jolly	Lenna Randle
	💍 1907/5082
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant	Household duties
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Rotorua
Length of Residence	31 years England	about 4 years
Marriage Place	Church of Hamilton
Folio	07/4688
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Tisdall

23 July 1907

John Bishop McLeod
Elizabeth Patterson

John Bishop McLeod
Elizabeth Patterson
💍 1907/5083

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

25
22

Ngatira
Arahiwi

about 4 years in Rotorua District, The house in Ngatira
about 5 months at Arahiwi (often William Patterson)

07/4689

27 July 1907

Rev. C. A. Tisdall

No	17
Date of Notice	23 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bishop McLeod	Elizabeth Patterson
	💍 1907/5083
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Ngatira	Arahiwi
Length of Residence	about 4 years in Rotorua District, The house in Ngatira	about 5 months at Arahiwi (often William Patterson)
Marriage Place
Folio	07/4689
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Tisdall

27 July 1907

Herbert Wheelock
Charlotte Ruby Brooke

Herbert Wheelock
Charlotte Ruby Brooke
💍 1907/5084

Bachelor
Spinster

Secretary
Confectioner

37
31

Rotorua
Rotorua (formerly Lyttelton)

3 months
3 days

St. Luke's Church, Rotorua

07/4690

27 July 1907

Rev. C. A. Tisdall

No	18
Date of Notice	27 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Wheelock	Charlotte Ruby Brooke
	💍 1907/5084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Secretary	Confectioner
Age	37	31
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua (formerly Lyttelton)
Length of Residence	3 months	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church, Rotorua
Folio	07/4690
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Tisdall

7 August 1907

Andrew Manson
Elizabeth Richardson

Andrew Manson
Elizabeth Richardson
💍 1907/5086

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

37
34

Rotorua
Rotorua (formerly Dunedin)

5 weeks
3 days

At the Residence of Mr. Tuaguns, Manson, at Walfor Road, Rotorua

07/4691

4 August 1907

Rev. Samuel Walter Duncan, M.A.

No	19
Date of Notice	7 August 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Manson	Elizabeth Richardson
	💍 1907/5086
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	37	34
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua (formerly Dunedin)
Length of Residence	5 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Residence of Mr. Tuaguns, Manson, at Walfor Road, Rotorua
Folio	07/4691
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Walter Duncan, M.A.

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).