Intentions to Marry, 1912 Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840449, 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 159

District of Ashhurst Quarter ending 30 June 1912 Registrar Howard Vincent

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

18 March 1912

James Roberth Symonds
Elsie Evelyn May Gower

James Robert Symonds
Elsie Evelyn May Gower
💍 1912/3454

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

21
18

Ashhurst
Ashhurst

12 years
6 months

Residence of Roberth Symonds Stanford St Ashhurst

12/323

To give consent to certificate under Section 19

3 April 1912

Rev. L. B. Neale (Methodist)

No	3
Date of Notice	18 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Roberth Symonds	Elsie Evelyn May Gower
BDM Match (98%)	James Robert Symonds	Elsie Evelyn May Gower
	💍 1912/3454
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Ashhurst	Ashhurst
Length of Residence	12 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Roberth Symonds Stanford St Ashhurst
Folio	12/323
Consent	To give consent to certificate under Section 19
Date of Certificate	3 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. B. Neale (Methodist)

6 April 1912

Edwin Clevely
Mary Andrew

Edwin Clevely
Mary Andrew
💍 1912/3453

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Duties

28
24

Bunnythorpe
Bunnythorpe

28 years
6 years

Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe

12/3234

6 April 1912

Rev L. B. Neale (Methodist)

No	4
Date of Notice	6 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Clevely	Mary Andrew
	💍 1912/3453
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Bunnythorpe
Length of Residence	28 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe
Folio	12/3234
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev L. B. Neale (Methodist)

10 April 1912

Charles Edwards
Ethel Caroline Faulkner

Charles Edwards
Ethel Caroline Faulkner
💍 1912/8031

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy Factory Manager
Domestic Duties

28
21

Bunnythorpe
Bunnythorpe

7 years
10 years

Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe

12/6493

10 April 1912

Rev. F. J. Thomas (Methodist)

No	5
Date of Notice	10 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edwards	Ethel Caroline Faulkner
	💍 1912/8031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy Factory Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Bunnythorpe
Length of Residence	7 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church at Bunnythorpe
Folio	12/6493
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Thomas (Methodist)

15 April 1912

Norman Cowen Bray
Hilda Corisande Short

Norman Gowen Bray
Hilda Corisande Short
💍 1912/2779

Bachelor
Spinster

Dried Milk Factory Manager
Domestic Duties

31
28

Bunnythorpe
Wellington

4 years
12 years

St. Peters Church Wellington

12/2574

15 April 1912

Archdeacon Harper (Church of England)

No	6
Date of Notice	15 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Cowen Bray	Hilda Corisande Short
BDM Match (97%)	Norman Gowen Bray	Hilda Corisande Short
	💍 1912/2779
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dried Milk Factory Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Bunnythorpe	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church Wellington
Folio	12/2574
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon Harper (Church of England)

24 June 1912

Peter Sheridan
Agnes Gertrude Mary McMullan

Peter Sheridan
Agnes Gertrude Mary McMullan
💍 1912/8000

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

29
22

Ashhurst
Ashhurst

28 years
2 years

Roman Catholic Church at Ashhurst

12/6386

24 June 1912

Rev. M. Goolaghty (Roman Catholic Priest)

No	7
Date of Notice	24 June 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Sheridan	Agnes Gertrude Mary McMullan
	💍 1912/8000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Ashhurst	Ashhurst
Length of Residence	28 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Ashhurst
Folio	12/6386
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Goolaghty (Roman Catholic Priest)

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).