Intentions to Marry, 1912 Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840448, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1912 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne (1912a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1912b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1912c).

Page 423

District of Kawakawa Quarter ending 31 December 1912 Registrar J. D. O'Kelly

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

10 October 1912

John William Black
Sarah Wyatt

John William Black
Sarah Wyatt
💍 1912/7029

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Surfaceman
Domestic Duties

21
19

Kawakawa
Kawakawa

12 years
11 years

Residence of Mrs. E. Wyatt, Kawakawa

12/744

Mother E. Wyatt

12 October 1912

E. H. Pain

No	6
Date of Notice	10 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Black	Sarah Wyatt
	💍 1912/7029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Surfaceman	Domestic Duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Kawakawa	Kawakawa
Length of Residence	12 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. E. Wyatt, Kawakawa
Folio	12/744
Consent	Mother E. Wyatt
Date of Certificate	12 October 1912
Officiating Minister	E. H. Pain

15 October 1912

Samuel Valentine Kitson
Alice Blanche Howe

Samuel Valentine Kitson
Alice Blanche Howe
💍 1912/8090

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic Duties

32
26

Kawakawa
Kawakawa

13 years
26 years

Registrar's Office, Kawakawa

12/6696

15 October 1912

J. D. O'Kelly

No	7
Date of Notice	15 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Valentine Kitson	Alice Blanche Howe
	💍 1912/8090
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Kawakawa	Kawakawa
Length of Residence	13 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Kawakawa
Folio	12/6696
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 October 1912
Officiating Minister	J. D. O'Kelly

5 December 1912

Arthur Reginald Faithfull
Catherine Lucy Squire

Arthur Reginald Faithfull
Catherine Lucy Squire
💍 1912/8443

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

30
29

Kawakawa
Kawakawa

5 years
29 years

Residence of Mrs. E. Squire, Kawakawa

12/7505

5 December 1912

M. William Herbert Holloway

No	8
Date of Notice	5 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Reginald Faithfull	Catherine Lucy Squire
	💍 1912/8443
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Kawakawa	Kawakawa
Length of Residence	5 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. E. Squire, Kawakawa
Folio	12/7505
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 December 1912
Officiating Minister	M. William Herbert Holloway

9 December 1912

John Rigden Junior
Mary Ann Young

John Rigden Junior
Mary Ann Young
💍 1912/7030

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill hand
Domestic Duties

31
25

Opua
Kawakawa

31 years
20 years

Residence of Mrs. E. Taylor, Kawakawa

12/7445

9 December 1912

E. H. Pain

No	9
Date of Notice	9 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Rigden Junior	Mary Ann Young
	💍 1912/7030
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill hand	Domestic Duties
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Opua	Kawakawa
Length of Residence	31 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. E. Taylor, Kawakawa
Folio	12/7445
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1912
Officiating Minister	E. H. Pain

10 December 1912

Leonard Cuthbert Hamilton
Isabella Marshall

Leonard Cuthbert Hamilton
Isabella Marshall
💍 1912/7032

Widower
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic Duties

33
23

Kawakawa
Kawakawa

3 years
23 years

Residence of Margaret Hamilton at Taumarunui

12/7446

10 December 1912

E. H. Pain

No	10
Date of Notice	10 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Cuthbert Hamilton	Isabella Marshall
	💍 1912/7032
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic Duties
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Kawakawa	Kawakawa
Length of Residence	3 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Margaret Hamilton at Taumarunui
Folio	12/7446
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1912
Officiating Minister	E. H. Pain

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).