Intentions to Marry, 1908 Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840436, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1908 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1908a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1908b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1908c).

Page 300

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar Hoewel Ewart Hill

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

1872

13 January 1908

Joseph Henry Norcross
Mary Connellan

Joseph Henry Norcross
Mary Donnellan
💍 1908/369

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Clerk

44
26

Waimata, Poverty Bay
Gisborne, Poverty Bay

2 years
10 years

St. Mary's Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

08/329

13 January 1908

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

No	1872
Date of Notice	13 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Henry Norcross	Mary Connellan
BDM Match (96%)	Joseph Henry Norcross	Mary Donnellan
	💍 1908/369
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Clerk
Age	44	26
Dwelling Place	Waimata, Poverty Bay	Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	08/329
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

1873

23 January 1908

John Lawrence Hamble
Ada May Everson

John Laurence Lamb
Ada May Everson
💍 1908/353

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
House help

24
22

Mangapapa, Poverty Bay
Gisborne, Poverty Bay

About 2 weeks
About 3 months

Trinity Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

08/336

23 January 1908

Rev. Leslie Dawson Thomas, Church of England

No	1873
Date of Notice	23 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lawrence Hamble	Ada May Everson
BDM Match (90%)	John Laurence Lamb	Ada May Everson
	💍 1908/353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	House help
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Mangapapa, Poverty Bay	Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	About 2 weeks	About 3 months
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	08/336
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Leslie Dawson Thomas, Church of England

1874

24 January 1908

Thomas Alfred Roy Allwood
Margaret Tait

Thomas Alfred Roy Allwood
Margaret Tait
💍 1908/346

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Duties

23
21

Whakatutu, Poverty Bay
Whakatutu, Poverty Bay

1 year
Life

At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

08/321

24 January 1908

Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	1874
Date of Notice	24 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Alfred Roy Allwood	Margaret Tait
	💍 1908/346
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Duties
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Whakatutu, Poverty Bay	Whakatutu, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	1 year	Life
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	08/321
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

1875

24 January 1908

Albert Dunlop Sherriff
Ester Maria Malone

Albert Dunlop Sherriff
Esther Maria Malone
💍 1908/347

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic Duties

26
25

Waihuka, Poverty Bay
Makareka, Poverty Bay

4 years
Life

St. Mary's Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

08/330

24 January 1908

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

No	1875
Date of Notice	24 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Dunlop Sherriff	Ester Maria Malone
BDM Match (97%)	Albert Dunlop Sherriff	Esther Maria Malone
	💍 1908/347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Waihuka, Poverty Bay	Makareka, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	4 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	08/330
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

1876

29 January 1908

Evelyn Lawrence Jones
Mary Ellen Kennedy

Evelyn Lawrence Jones
Mary Ellen Kennedy
💍 1908/330

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Servant

33
23

Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Gisborne

About 19 months
Life

At the private residence of the mother of the Bride, Russell Street, Gisborne

08/312

29 January 1908

Rev. Cornelius Greffin, Methodist

No	1876
Date of Notice	29 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Evelyn Lawrence Jones	Mary Ellen Kennedy
	💍 1908/330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Servant
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne, Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	About 19 months	Life
Marriage Place	At the private residence of the mother of the Bride, Russell Street, Gisborne
Folio	08/312
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Cornelius Greffin, Methodist

1877

3 February 1908

George Cuthbert Hoale
Lydia Turrant

George Cuthbert Hale
Lydia Durrant
💍 1908/357

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Duties

23
23

Tolaga Bay
Gisborne, Poverty Bay

Life
2 years

At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

08/322

3 February 1908

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	1877
Date of Notice	3 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Cuthbert Hoale	Lydia Turrant
BDM Match (94%)	George Cuthbert Hale	Lydia Durrant
	💍 1908/357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Tolaga Bay	Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	Life	2 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	08/322
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

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).