Intentions to Marry, 1913 Auckland, Taranaki

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840451, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 692

District of Te Aroha Quarter ending 30 June 1913 Registrar John Hollywood

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

7 June 1913

Frederick John Eastwood
Alice Martha Black

Fredrick John Eastwood
Alice Martha Black
💍 1913/3187

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

27
21

Manawaru
Waitoa

16 years
2 years

Private Residence of John Black, Waitoa

13/2976

7 June 1913

Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

No	12
Date of Notice	7 June 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick John Eastwood	Alice Martha Black
BDM Match (98%)	Fredrick John Eastwood	Alice Martha Black
	💍 1913/3187
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Manawaru	Waitoa
Length of Residence	16 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Private Residence of John Black, Waitoa
Folio	13/2976
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 June 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

9 June 1913

Charles Alexander Maunder
Bertha Ashton

Charles Alexander Maunder
Bertha Ashton
💍 1913/3117

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
26

Waihou
Waihou

5 years
6 weeks

Private Residence of Martin Ulsin, Waihou

13/2963

9 June 1913

Rev. William Henry Parcoe, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	9 June 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Alexander Maunder	Bertha Ashton
	💍 1913/3117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Waihou	Waihou
Length of Residence	5 years	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Private Residence of Martin Ulsin, Waihou
Folio	13/2963
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Henry Parcoe, Church of England

10 June 1913

Fred Baynes Woodhead
Elizabeth Jane Ross

Fred Baynes Woodhead
Elizabeth Jane Ross
💍 1913/3130

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic Duties

32
28

Waihou
Waihou

2 years
28 years

Presbyterian Church, Te Aroha

13/2975

10 June 1913

Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	10 June 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Baynes Woodhead	Elizabeth Jane Ross
	💍 1913/3130
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Waihou	Waihou
Length of Residence	2 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Te Aroha
Folio	13/2975
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

14 June 1913

Thomas Hitchman
Sarah Louisa Abbot

Tom Hitchman
Sarah Louisa Abbott
💍 1913/8509

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Housekeeper

37
36

Waitoa
Waitoa

14 months
4 days

Church of England, Te Aroha

8225

14 June 1913

Rev. H. B. Wingfield, Church of England

No	15
Date of Notice	14 June 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hitchman	Sarah Louisa Abbot
BDM Match (87%)	Tom Hitchman	Sarah Louisa Abbott
	💍 1913/8509
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Housekeeper
Age	37	36
Dwelling Place	Waitoa	Waitoa
Length of Residence	14 months	4 days
Marriage Place	Church of England, Te Aroha
Folio	8225
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Wingfield, Church of England

16 June 1913

Henry Palmer Harkness
Rosa Ferguson

Henry Palmer Harkness
Rosa Ferguson
💍 1913/3198

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
28

Waitoa
Te Aroha West

5 years
14 years

Private Residence of Mr. W. Ferguson, Te Aroha West

13/2977

16 June 1913

Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

No	16
Date of Notice	16 June 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Palmer Harkness	Rosa Ferguson
	💍 1913/3198
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Waitoa	Te Aroha West
Length of Residence	5 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Private Residence of Mr. W. Ferguson, Te Aroha West
Folio	13/2977
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. C. Blair, Presbyterian

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).