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 025

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1908 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

31 January 1908

Edward Albert Herd
Olive May Frances Russell

Edward Albert Herd
Olive May Frances Russell
💍 1908/103

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

22
19

Auckland
Auckland

21 years
19 years

Church of England Otahuhu

08/64

John James Russell Father

31 January 1908

Rev. C. E. Mason Church of England

No	91
Date of Notice	31 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Albert Herd	Olive May Frances Russell
	💍 1908/103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Otahuhu
Folio	08/64
Consent	John James Russell Father
Date of Certificate	31 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. E. Mason Church of England

31 January 1908

Thomas Anderson
Dagmar Hansen

Thomas Anderson
Dagmar Hansen
💍 1908/53

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

42
32

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
1 week

Registrar's Office Auckland

08/13

31 January 1908

E. H. Lyons Registrar

No	92
Date of Notice	31 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Anderson	Dagmar Hansen
	💍 1908/53
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	42	32
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Auckland
Folio	08/13
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1908
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons Registrar

1 February 1908

Ernest Louis Smith
Philly Deborah Ralph

Ernest Louis Smith
Lilly Deborah Ralph
💍 1908/137

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
28

Auckland
Auckland

4 years
8 months

St Matthew's Church Auckland

08/101

4 February 1908

Rev. W. E. Gillam Church of England

No	93
Date of Notice	1 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Louis Smith	Philly Deborah Ralph
BDM Match (95%)	Ernest Louis Smith	Lilly Deborah Ralph
	💍 1908/137
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	8 months
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Auckland
Folio	08/101
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam Church of England

1 February 1908

Robert Peace Heighway
Elizabeth Jane Roberts

Robert Peace Heighway
Elizabeth Jane Roberts
💍 1908/280

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

20
24

Auckland
Auckland

20 years
12 years

House of A. McBoll Mount Eden

08/257

E. Heighway Father

4 February 1908

Rev. J. B. Sneyd Baptist

No	94
Date of Notice	1 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Peace Heighway	Elizabeth Jane Roberts
	💍 1908/280
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	20	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	20 years	12 years
Marriage Place	House of A. McBoll Mount Eden
Folio	08/257
Consent	E. Heighway Father
Date of Certificate	4 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Sneyd Baptist

1 February 1908

Richard William Buckby
Violet Coppell

Richard William Buckby
Violet Coppell
💍 1908/54

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor man

28
22

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
22 years

Registrar's Office Auckland

08/14

4 February 1908

E. H. Lyons Registrar

No	95
Date of Notice	1 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard William Buckby	Violet Coppell
	💍 1908/54
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor man
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Auckland
Folio	08/14
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1908
Officiating Minister	E. H. Lyons Registrar

3 February 1908

Charles Edwin Clarke
May Penrose Pearce

Charles Edwin Clarke
May Penrose Pearce
💍 1908/297

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

23
22

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
10 years

Congregational Church Beresford Street

08/250

4 February 1908

Rev. J. Wilkins Congregational Independent

No	96
Date of Notice	3 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edwin Clarke	May Penrose Pearce
	💍 1908/297
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Beresford Street
Folio	08/250
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilkins Congregational Independent

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).