Intentions to Marry, 1911 Auckland, Taranaki

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840445, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1911 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, (1911a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1911b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1911c).

Page 301

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 June 1911 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

13 May 1911

Charles Underwood
Daisy Soleman O'Connell

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer
Dressmaker

31 years
24 years

Ngatapa, Poverty Bay
Gisborne

12 months
4 years

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

11/2318

13 May 1911

Rev Thomas Hane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	81
Date of Notice	13 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Underwood	Daisy Soleman O'Connell
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer	Dressmaker
Age	31 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Ngatapa, Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	12 months	4 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	11/2318
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Hane, Roman Catholic Minister

22 May 1911

Arthur James Morgan
Alice Janson

Arthur James Morgan
Alice Janson
💍 1911/2232

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

42 years
30 years

O'toko, Poverty Bay
Gisborne

7 months
12 months

The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

11/1863

22 May 1911

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	82
Date of Notice	22 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Morgan	Alice Janson
	💍 1911/2232
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	42 years	30 years
Dwelling Place	O'toko, Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	7 months	12 months
Marriage Place	The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	11/1863
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

22 May 1911

Arthur Henry Heffernan
Anna Sarah Rush Forster

Arthur Henry Heffernan
Anna Sarah Ruth Forster
💍 1911/2221

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer
Nurse

28 years
24 years

Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Gisborne

4 days
12 months

The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

11/1862

22 May 1911

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	83
Date of Notice	22 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Henry Heffernan	Anna Sarah Rush Forster
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Henry Heffernan	Anna Sarah Ruth Forster
	💍 1911/2221
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer	Nurse
Age	28 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne, Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 days	12 months
Marriage Place	The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	11/1862
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

23 May 1911

Arthur George Robinson
Violet Peters

Arthur George Robinson
Violet Peters
💍 1911/3085

Bachelor
Spinster

Lighterman
Housekeeper

40 years
25 years

No. 658 Gladstone Road, Gisborne
Gisborne, Poverty Bay

18 years
2 years

11/2774

23 May 1911

Rev William Grant, Presbyterian Minister

No	84
Date of Notice	23 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Robinson	Violet Peters
	💍 1911/3085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lighterman	Housekeeper
Age	40 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	No. 658 Gladstone Road, Gisborne	Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	18 years	2 years
Marriage Place
Folio	11/2774
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev William Grant, Presbyterian Minister

24 May 1911

John William Beau
Agnes Jean Gramachan

John William Bean
Agnes Jean McGrannachan
💍 1911/2670

Bachelor
Spinster

Cooper
Domestic Servant

25 years
20 years

Gisborne
Patutahi, Poverty Bay

8 months
6 years

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

11/2319

24 May 1911

Rev Thomas Hane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	85
Date of Notice	24 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Beau	Agnes Jean Gramachan
BDM Match (88%)	John William Bean	Agnes Jean McGrannachan
	💍 1911/2670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cooper	Domestic Servant
Age	25 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Patutahi, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	8 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	11/2319
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Hane, Roman Catholic Minister

24 May 1911

Paora Tawiri
[illegible]

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer, Aboriginal Native
Domestic Duties, Aboriginal Native

31 years
31 years

Muriwai, Poverty Bay
Muriwai, Poverty Bay

2 weeks
2 weeks

The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

11/1861

24 May 1911

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	86
Date of Notice	24 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paora Tawiri	[illegible]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer, Aboriginal Native	Domestic Duties, Aboriginal Native
Age	31 years	31 years
Dwelling Place	Muriwai, Poverty Bay	Muriwai, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	The Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	11/1861
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

30 May 1911

May Walloway Thompson
Torata Mataora

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman
Domestic Duties, Aboriginal Native

29 years
31 years

Poverty Bay
Muriwai, Poverty Bay

1 month
1 month

Private Residence of the bride's father Raharua, Poverty Bay

11/2961

30 May 1911

Rev Ferdinand Loguan, Roman Catholic Minister

No	87
Date of Notice	30 May 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	May Walloway Thompson	Torata Mataora
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman	Domestic Duties, Aboriginal Native
Age	29 years	31 years
Dwelling Place	Poverty Bay	Muriwai, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Private Residence of the bride's father Raharua, Poverty Bay
Folio	11/2961
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev Ferdinand Loguan, Roman 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).