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 292

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1909 Registrar Henry 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

2012

4 January 1909

Michael Hoyland
Bridget Mullooly

Michael Hyland
Bridget Mullooly
💍 1909/378

Bachelor
Spinster

Waggondriver
Domestic Duties

29
27

Gisborne
Poverty Bay

5 years
9 days

The Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

09/164

4 January 1909

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

No	2012
Date of Notice	4 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Hoyland	Bridget Mullooly
BDM Match (97%)	Michael Hyland	Bridget Mullooly
	💍 1909/378
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waggondriver	Domestic Duties
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	5 years	9 days
Marriage Place	The Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	09/164
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic

2013

6 January 1909

William John Solomon

Bachelor

Labourer

Gisborne

20 years

At Residence of Captain George Dickens, Carnarvon Street

09/214

6 January 1909

Captain George Dickens, Salvation Army

No	2013
Date of Notice	6 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Solomon
Condition	Bachelor
Profession	Labourer
Age	31
Dwelling Place	Gisborne
Length of Residence	20 years
Marriage Place	At Residence of Captain George Dickens, Carnarvon Street
Folio	09/214
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Captain George Dickens, Salvation Army

2014

6 January 1909

Alfred Williams Harvey
Eva Nichols

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Domestic Duties

23
28

Gisborne
Poverty Bay

7 years
5 years

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

09/253

6 January 1909

Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	2014
Date of Notice	6 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Williams Harvey	Eva Nichols
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	7 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	09/253
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

2015

9 January 1909

Francis William Scheel
Muriel Elsie Margaret Kolster

Alfred William Harvey
Muriel Elsie Margaret Kolster
💍 1909/370

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

28
16

Gisborne
Poverty Bay

About 5 years
9 months

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

09/260

Margaret Laughlin (Mother)

9 January 1909

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	2015
Date of Notice	9 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis William Scheel	Muriel Elsie Margaret Kolster
BDM Match (73%)	Alfred William Harvey	Muriel Elsie Margaret Kolster
	💍 1909/370
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	16
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	About 5 years	9 months
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	09/260
Consent	Margaret Laughlin (Mother)
Date of Certificate	9 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

2016

13 January 1909

Charles Leopold Rogers
Mary Hoyde

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman, Able Bodied
Domestic Duties

34
23

Poverty Bay
Gisborne

8 years
All life

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

09/261

13 January 1909

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	2016
Date of Notice	13 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Leopold Rogers	Mary Hoyde
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman, Able Bodied	Domestic Duties
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8 years	All life
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	09/261
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

2017

16 January 1909

William Pearson
Charlotte Stichbury

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic Duties

26
21

Gisborne
Poverty Bay

5 years
2 1/2 years

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

09/364

16 January 1909

Leslie Dawson Thomas, Church of England

No	2017
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Pearson	Charlotte Stichbury
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic Duties
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	5 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	09/364
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Leslie Dawson Thomas, Church of England

2018

16 January 1909

Alfred Casselton Hodge
Bessie May Tate

Alfred Casselton Hodge
Rosa Matilda White
💍 1909/846

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

30 years
19 years

Ormond
Gisborne

13 years
19 years

At the residence of the bride's parents, Ormond

09/377

Ellen Eliza Tate (Mother)

16 January 1909

Rev. E. W. Walker, Presbyterian Minister

No	2018
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Casselton Hodge	Bessie May Tate
BDM Match (64%)	Alfred Casselton Hodge	Rosa Matilda White
	💍 1909/846
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	30 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Ormond	Gisborne
Length of Residence	13 years	19 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of the bride's parents, Ormond
Folio	09/377
Consent	Ellen Eliza Tate (Mother)
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. W. Walker, Presbyterian Minister

2019

16 January 1909

William Francis Houlkman
Rosa Matilda White

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Duties

23 years
26 years

Gisborne
Poverty Bay

About 1 month
About 1 month

At the Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

09/165

16 January 1909

Rev. Thomas Kane, Catholic Minister

No	2019
Date of Notice	16 January 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Houlkman	Rosa Matilda White
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	23 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	About 1 month	About 1 month
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	09/165
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Catholic Minister

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).