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 174

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 December 1907 Registrar E. H. 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

961

31 October 1907

Ernest Seldon Pike
Winifred May Brown

Ernest Seldon Pike
Winifred Mary Brown
💍 1907/6847

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

33
23

Auckland
Auckland

4 days
23 years

St. Mathew's Church Auckland

07/6160

31 October 1907

Rev. W. E. Gillam, Church of England

No	961
Date of Notice	31 October 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Seldon Pike	Winifred May Brown
BDM Match (97%)	Ernest Seldon Pike	Winifred Mary Brown
	💍 1907/6847
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Mathew's Church Auckland
Folio	07/6160
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Church of England

962

31 October 1907

Albert Baldwin Speakman
Lilian Christine Mathiesen

Albert Baldwin Speakman
Lilian Christina Mathieson
💍 1907/6829

Bachelor
Spinster

Purser

28
24

Auckland
Auckland

4 years
24 years

St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell

07/6140

31 October 1907

Rev. M. Sutton, Church of England

No	962
Date of Notice	31 October 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Baldwin Speakman	Lilian Christine Mathiesen
BDM Match (96%)	Albert Baldwin Speakman	Lilian Christina Mathieson
	💍 1907/6829
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Purser
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell
Folio	07/6140
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Sutton, Church of England

963

31 October 1907

Harold Vernon Gibbs
Martha Knight

Harold Vernon Sibles
Martha Knight
💍 1907/6914

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

41
28

Auckland
Auckland

3 years
1 year

St. David's Church Khyber Pass

07/6234

31 October 1907

Rev. A. M. Caldwell, Presbyterian

No	963
Date of Notice	31 October 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Vernon Gibbs	Martha Knight
BDM Match (93%)	Harold Vernon Sibles	Martha Knight
	💍 1907/6914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	41	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. David's Church Khyber Pass
Folio	07/6234
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Caldwell, Presbyterian

964

31 October 1907

Sydney Percival Smith
Cora Veronica Aldred

Sydney Percival Smith
Cora Veronica Aldred
💍 1907/6340

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

29
26

Auckland
Auckland

11 years
12 years

Congregational Church Beresford Street

07/6341

31 October 1907

Rev. J. Wilkins, Congregational Independent

No	964
Date of Notice	31 October 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Percival Smith	Cora Veronica Aldred
	💍 1907/6340
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Beresford Street
Folio	07/6341
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilkins, Congregational Independent

965

1 November 1907

Henry James Probert
Mary Virginia Penrose Nicholson

Henry James Robert
Mary Virgina Penrose Nicholson
💍 1907/6950

Bachelor
Spinster

Saw Doctor

26
20

Auckland
Auckland

26 years
20 years

House of father of bride Devonport

07/6270

Thomas Nicholson, father

1 November 1907

Rev. S. Griffith, Methodist

No	965
Date of Notice	1 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Probert	Mary Virginia Penrose Nicholson
BDM Match (93%)	Henry James Robert	Mary Virgina Penrose Nicholson
	💍 1907/6950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saw Doctor
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	26 years	20 years
Marriage Place	House of father of bride Devonport
Folio	07/6270
Consent	Thomas Nicholson, father
Date of Certificate	1 November 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Griffith, Methodist

966

1 November 1907

Ernest Alfred Godfrey Pratt
Charlotte Sullivan

Ernest Alfred Godfrey Pratt
Charlotte Sullivan
💍 1907/3968

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
24

Auckland
Auckland

6 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Auckland

07/6108

1 November 1907

E. H. Lyons, Registrar

No	966
Date of Notice	1 November 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Alfred Godfrey Pratt	Charlotte Sullivan
	💍 1907/3968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	07/6108
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 November 1907
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

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).