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 010

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1908 Registrar R. H. Lyono

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

3 January 1908

John William Bennett
Mary Ethel Wrigley

John William Bennett
Mary Ethel Wrigley
💍 1908/286

Bachelor
Spinster

School teacher

29
24

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
27 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Eden Terrace

08/263

3 January 1908

Rev. Y. S. Lyon, Primitive Methodist

No	7
Date of Notice	3 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Bennett	Mary Ethel Wrigley
	💍 1908/286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School teacher
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	27 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Eden Terrace
Folio	08/263
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. Y. S. Lyon, Primitive Methodist

3 January 1908

Sydney Bertram Bull
Kate Margaret Reid

Sydney Brittam Bull
Kate Margaret Reid
💍 1908/236

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

34
31

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
15 years

Church, Mount Eden

08/208

3 January 1908

Rev. W. Gittos, Methodist

No	8
Date of Notice	3 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Bertram Bull	Kate Margaret Reid
BDM Match (92%)	Sydney Brittam Bull	Kate Margaret Reid
	💍 1908/236
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Church, Mount Eden
Folio	08/208
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Gittos, Methodist

3 January 1908

Ralph Badell
Annie Pollard

Ralph Cadell Gracie
Annie Pollard
💍 1908/60

Bachelor
Spinster

Confectioner

25
20

Auckland
Auckland

21 years
20 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

08/2

Charley Pollard, father

3 January 1908

R. H. Lyono, Registrar

No	9
Date of Notice	3 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Badell	Annie Pollard
BDM Match (79%)	Ralph Cadell Gracie	Annie Pollard
	💍 1908/60
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	08/2
Consent	Charley Pollard, father
Date of Certificate	3 January 1908
Officiating Minister	R. H. Lyono, Registrar

3 January 1908

Alexander Reid
Mabel Mary Jarrell

Alexander Reid
Mabel Mary Farrell
💍 1908/71

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

30
25

Auckland
Auckland

10 days
25 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

08/7

3 January 1908

R. H. Lyono, Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	3 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Reid	Mabel Mary Jarrell
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander Reid	Mabel Mary Farrell
	💍 1908/71
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	08/7
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1908
Officiating Minister	R. H. Lyono, Registrar

4 January 1908

Hugh Jessop
Winifred Eva Neil

Hugh Jessop
Winifred Eva Neil
💍 1908/3837

Bachelor
Spinster

Tea specialist

19
19

Auckland
Auckland

22 years
19 years

House of Rev. A. Walker, Wellington Street

08/225

John Jessop, father; William Neil, father

4 January 1908

Rev. A. Walker, Church of Our Saviour

No	11
Date of Notice	4 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Jessop	Winifred Eva Neil
	💍 1908/3837
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tea specialist
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	22 years	19 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. A. Walker, Wellington Street
Folio	08/225
Consent	John Jessop, father; William Neil, father
Date of Certificate	4 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Walker, Church of Our Saviour

4 January 1908

Charles Billard
Stella Magdalene Rice

Charles Gilland Irving
Stella Magdalen Rice
💍 1908/3851

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance clerk

29
28

Auckland
Auckland

11 years
28 years

St. Sepulchre's Church, Auckland

08/85

4 January 1908

Rev. H. Reeve, Church of England

No	12
Date of Notice	4 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Billard	Stella Magdalene Rice
BDM Match (77%)	Charles Gilland Irving	Stella Magdalen Rice
	💍 1908/3851
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance clerk
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St. Sepulchre's Church, Auckland
Folio	08/85
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Reeve, Church of England

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).