Intentions to Marry, 1909 Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840439, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1909 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1909a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1909b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1909c).

Page 019

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 March 1909 Registrar THOMAS CULPAN

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

16 January 1909

Alfred Edward Thomson
Esther Earley

Alfred Edward Thomson
Esther Earley
💍 1909/228

Widower
Spinster

Engineer

51
26

Auckland
Auckland

1 1/2 years
1 month

Registrar's Office, Auckland

09/89

16 January 1909

J. Culpan, Registrar

No	49
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Thomson	Esther Earley
	💍 1909/228
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	51	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	09/89
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	J. Culpan, Registrar

16 January 1909

John Edward Doughty
Beatrice Anne Cosnett

John Edward Doughty
Beatrice Annie Cosnett
💍 1909/227

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

35
27

Auckland
London

2 weeks
1 day

Registrar's Office, Auckland

09/88

16 January 1909

J. Culpan, Registrar

No	50
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Edward Doughty	Beatrice Anne Cosnett
BDM Match (98%)	John Edward Doughty	Beatrice Annie Cosnett
	💍 1909/227
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	London
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 day
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	09/88
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	J. Culpan, Registrar

16 January 1909

George Arthur Edmonds
Daisy Helen Blackett

George Arthur Edmonds
Daisy Helen Blackett
💍 1909/4418

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
22

Auckland
Auckland

1 week
1 month

Church of England, Devonport

09/5818

16 January 1909

Rev. J. Evershed, Anglican

No	51
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Arthur Edmonds	Daisy Helen Blackett
	💍 1909/4418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 week	1 month
Marriage Place	Church of England, Devonport
Folio	09/5818
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Evershed, Anglican

16 January 1909

Richard Cornish
Annie Palmer

Richard Cornish
Annie Palmer
💍 1909/650

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

24
19

Auckland
Auckland

8 days
3 months

Maternity Home, Hepburn Street

09/520

W. A. Gunn

30 January 1909

W. A. Gunn, Salvation Army

No	52
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Cornish	Annie Palmer
	💍 1909/650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Maternity Home, Hepburn Street
Folio	09/520
Consent	W. A. Gunn
Date of Certificate	30 January 1909
Officiating Minister	W. A. Gunn, Salvation Army

18 January 1909

Peter Fraser
Elfreda Mary Austin

Peter Fraser
Elfreda Mary Austin
💍 1909/529

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyors Assistant

27
29

Auckland
Wellington

5 days
5 days

St. Benedicts Church, Wellington

09/392

18 January 1909

Rev. G. H. Gillan, Roman Catholic

No	53
Date of Notice	18 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Fraser	Elfreda Mary Austin
	💍 1909/529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyors Assistant
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Benedicts Church, Wellington
Folio	09/392
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gillan, Roman Catholic

18 January 1909

Edward William Cains
Agnes Tippett

Edward William Cains
Agnes Tippett
💍 1909/519

Bachelor
Spinster

Bush Contractor

38
25

Auckland
Auckland

3 weeks
2 weeks

House of Rev. M. Walker, Wellington Street

09/408

18 January 1909

Rev. M. Walker, Church of our Father

No	54
Date of Notice	18 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward William Cains	Agnes Tippett
	💍 1909/519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bush Contractor
Age	38	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	House of Rev. M. Walker, Wellington Street
Folio	09/408
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Walker, Church of our Father

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).