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 764

District of Opunake Quarter ending 30 September 1907 Registrar Dr. A. Harding

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

5 July 1907

John Feaver
Marie Josephine Brennan

John Feaver
Marie Josephine Brennan
💍 1907/3622

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
27

Opunake
Opunake

11 years
12 years

Dwelling of M. J. Brennan, Opunake

07/4794

5 July 1907

John M. Barra, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	5 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Feaver	Marie Josephine Brennan
	💍 1907/3622
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	11 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of M. J. Brennan, Opunake
Folio	07/4794
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1907
Officiating Minister	John M. Barra, Roman Catholic

8 July 1907

Stanley Hamilton Stronge
Margaret Warren Feaver

Stanley Hamilton Stronge
Margaret Warren Feaver
💍 1907/3670

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
27

Oaonui
Opunake

19 years
12 years

St. Barnabas Church, Opunake

07/4838

8 July 1907

Thomas Fisher, Church of England

No	12
Date of Notice	8 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Hamilton Stronge	Margaret Warren Feaver
	💍 1907/3670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Oaonui	Opunake
Length of Residence	19 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Barnabas Church, Opunake
Folio	07/4838
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Thomas Fisher, Church of England

13 July 1907

William McNeil
Ethel Florence Humphries

William McNeil
Ethel Florence Humphries
💍 1907/3623

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
22

Opunake
Opunake

9 years
22 years

Church of England, Opunake

07/4795

13 July 1907

Thomas Fisher, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	13 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William McNeil	Ethel Florence Humphries
	💍 1907/3623
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	9 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Opunake
Folio	07/4795
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Thomas Fisher, Church of England

31 July 1907

William Rodgers Parsons
Charlotte Dinah Pentelow

William Roger Parsons
Charlotte Dinah Pentelow
💍 1907/3601

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
20

Opunake
Oaonui

8 years
15 years

Dwelling of John Pentelow, Oaonui

07/4797

31 July 1907

Adam Laybourne, Methodist

No	14
Date of Notice	31 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Rodgers Parsons	Charlotte Dinah Pentelow
BDM Match (96%)	William Roger Parsons	Charlotte Dinah Pentelow
	💍 1907/3601
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Oaonui
Length of Residence	8 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of John Pentelow, Oaonui
Folio	07/4797
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Adam Laybourne, Methodist

9 August 1907

Evan Henry Jones
Effie Geraldine Brennan

Evan Henry Jones
Effie Geraldine Brennan
💍 1907/3605

Bachelor
Spinster

Store Manager

27
23

Pungarehu
Opunake

20 months
18 months

Dwelling of M. J. Brennan, Opunake

07/4801

9 August 1907

Claudius Coquet, Roman Catholic

No	15
Date of Notice	9 August 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Evan Henry Jones	Effie Geraldine Brennan
	💍 1907/3605
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Store Manager
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Pungarehu	Opunake
Length of Residence	20 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Dwelling of M. J. Brennan, Opunake
Folio	07/4801
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1907
Officiating Minister	Claudius Coquet, Roman Catholic

10 August 1907

Alfred Samson Crocker
Emily Maude Warner

Alfred Samson Crocker
Emily Maude Warner
💍 1907/3602

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman

32
26

Opunake
Opunake

4 years
23 years

Wesleyan Church, Opunake

07/4798

10 August 1907

John Wesley, Norboys, Methodist

No	16
Date of Notice	10 August 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Samson Crocker	Emily Maude Warner
	💍 1907/3602
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	4 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Opunake
Folio	07/4798
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 August 1907
Officiating Minister	John Wesley, Norboys, Methodist

17 September 1907

Walter John Scott Dudley
Caroline Edith Hicks

Walter John Scott Dudley
Caroline Edith Hicks
💍 1907/3621

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

25
27

Opunake
Opunake

11 years
6 days

Catholic Church, Opunake

07/4793

17 September 1907

John M. Barra, Roman Catholic

No	17
Date of Notice	17 September 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Scott Dudley	Caroline Edith Hicks
	💍 1907/3621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	11 years	6 days
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Opunake
Folio	07/4793
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1907
Officiating Minister	John M. Barra, 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).