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 528

District of Opotiki Quarter ending 30 September 1909 Registrar George Frederick Day

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

5 July 1909

Edgar Frank Snell
Adeline Lewis

Edgar Frank Snell
Aveline Lewis
💍 1909/4746

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher
Domestic duties

29
26

Opotiki
Opotiki

5 days
26 years

St Stephens Church

09/6156

5 July 1909

Rev. W. H. Bawden

No	5
Date of Notice	5 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Frank Snell	Adeline Lewis
BDM Match (96%)	Edgar Frank Snell	Aveline Lewis
	💍 1909/4746
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher	Domestic duties
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	5 days	26 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church
Folio	09/6156
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Bawden

15 July 1909

George Hursthouse
Adelaide Alice Parkinson

George Hursthouse Newsham
Adelaide Alice Parkinson
💍 1909/2947

Bachelor
Spinster

Livery Stable Proprietor
Domestic duties

36
21

Opotiki
Opotiki

6 years
19 years

St Marys Church

09/4141

15 July 1909

Rev. E. B. Schoonofs

No	9
Date of Notice	15 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Hursthouse	Adelaide Alice Parkinson
BDM Match (84%)	George Hursthouse Newsham	Adelaide Alice Parkinson
	💍 1909/2947
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Livery Stable Proprietor	Domestic duties
Age	36	21
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	6 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Marys Church
Folio	09/4141
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. B. Schoonofs

17 July 1909

Sydney Harold Tippett
Elsie Marguerite Armstrong

Sydney Harold Tippett
Elsie Marguerite Armstrong
💍 1909/4747

Bachelor
Spinster

Surgeon Dentist
Domestic duties

26
22

Opotiki
Opotiki

3 1/2 years
22 years

St Stephens Church

09/6157

17 July 1909

Rev. W. H. Bawden

No	10
Date of Notice	17 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Harold Tippett	Elsie Marguerite Armstrong
	💍 1909/4747
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surgeon Dentist	Domestic duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church
Folio	09/6157
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Bawden

10 August 1909

Henry Gordon Armstrong
Winifred Louise Foster

Henry Gordon Armstrong
Winifred Louise Lydia Foster
💍 1909/4748

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

39
25

Opotiki
Opotiki

36 years
3 years

St Stephens Church

09/6158

10 August 1909

Rev. W. H. Bawden

No	11
Date of Notice	10 August 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gordon Armstrong	Winifred Louise Foster
BDM Match (89%)	Henry Gordon Armstrong	Winifred Louise Lydia Foster
	💍 1909/4748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	39	25
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	36 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church
Folio	09/6158
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 August 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Bawden

21 August 1909

George Alfred Simpson
Mary Campbell

George Alfred Charles Simpson
Mary Campbell
💍 1909/2948

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

39
39

Opotiki
Opotiki

7 years
8 months

The Schoolhouse, Kutarere

09/4142

21 August 1909

Rev. Robert Francis

No	12
Date of Notice	21 August 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Alfred Simpson	Mary Campbell
BDM Match (86%)	George Alfred Charles Simpson	Mary Campbell
	💍 1909/2948
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	39	39
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	7 years	8 months
Marriage Place	The Schoolhouse, Kutarere
Folio	09/4142
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 August 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert Francis

30 August 1909

Benjamin Shorthouse White
Mary Elizabeth Elliott

Benjamin Shorthouse White
Mary Elizabeth Elliott
💍 1909/4749

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

34
29

Opotiki
Opotiki

1 month at the Residence of Mrs Elliott
29 years

Residence of Mrs Elliott

09/6159

30 August 1909

Rev. W. H. Bawden

No	13
Date of Notice	30 August 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Shorthouse White	Mary Elizabeth Elliott
	💍 1909/4749
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	1 month at the Residence of Mrs Elliott	29 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Elliott
Folio	09/6159
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Bawden

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).