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 785

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 September 1907 Registrar S. D. 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

24 July 1907

Williams Tilgarner Wood
Gertrude Jane Knight

William Tilgarner Wood
Gertrude Jane Knight
💍 1907/3636

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Dressmaker

23
26

Stratford
Stratford

10 years
2 years

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

07/4814

24 July 1907

E. F. Hemingway, Deputy Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	24 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Williams Tilgarner Wood	Gertrude Jane Knight
BDM Match (98%)	William Tilgarner Wood	Gertrude Jane Knight
	💍 1907/3636
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Dressmaker
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	10 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	07/4814
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1907
Officiating Minister	E. F. Hemingway, Deputy Registrar

26 July 1907

Martin Steiner
Mary Sutter

Martin Steiner
Mary Lattler
💍 1907/3612

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
21

Stratford
Stratford

4 years
1 year

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

07/4807

26 July 1907

Rev. Father P. Treacy, Roman Catholic

No	36
Date of Notice	26 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Steiner	Mary Sutter
BDM Match (88%)	Martin Steiner	Mary Lattler
	💍 1907/3612
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	07/4807
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father P. Treacy, Roman Catholic

29 July 1907

William Henry Weight
Myrtle Alice Taylor

William Henry Wright
Myrtle Alice Taylor
💍 1907/3626

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
17

Mahoe
Mahoe

8 months
10 months

Residence of W. S. Bowie, Regan Street, Stratford

07/4822

Frank Taylor, father

29 July 1907

Rev. W. S. Bowie, Wesleyan

No	37
Date of Notice	29 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Weight	Myrtle Alice Taylor
BDM Match (98%)	William Henry Wright	Myrtle Alice Taylor
	💍 1907/3626
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Mahoe	Mahoe
Length of Residence	8 months	10 months
Marriage Place	Residence of W. S. Bowie, Regan Street, Stratford
Folio	07/4822
Consent	Frank Taylor, father
Date of Certificate	29 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Bowie, Wesleyan

30 July 1907

Frederick John Mehrtens
Sarah Coleman

Frederick John Merrtens
Sarah Coleman
💍 1907/5458

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

27
24

Ngaire
Ngaire

4 years
2 years

Residence of Henry Kenny, Cheal Road, Ngaire

07/5286

30 July 1907

Rev. G. W. Dent, Church of England

No	38
Date of Notice	30 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick John Mehrtens	Sarah Coleman
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick John Merrtens	Sarah Coleman
	💍 1907/5458
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Ngaire	Ngaire
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Henry Kenny, Cheal Road, Ngaire
Folio	07/5286
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Church of England

31 July 1907

Archibald Harry Clothier
Lizzie Elinor Hooper

Archibald Harry Clothier
Lizzie Elinor Hooper
💍 1907/3645

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
19

Cardiff
Cardiff

2 years
8 years

Methodist Church, Cardiff

07/4817

Eleanor Susan Gillespie, Mother

31 July 1907

Rev. D. Campbell, Primitive Methodist

No	39
Date of Notice	31 July 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Harry Clothier	Lizzie Elinor Hooper
	💍 1907/3645
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Cardiff	Cardiff
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Cardiff
Folio	07/4817
Consent	Eleanor Susan Gillespie, Mother
Date of Certificate	31 July 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Campbell, Primitive Methodist

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).