Intentions to Marry, 1914 Auckland, Taranaki

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840454, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1914 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1914a), Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1914b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1914c).

Page 295

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar Culpan

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

1619

24 December 1914

Harold Waldron Lang
Olive Margaret Christie

Harold Waldron Laing
Olive Margaret Christie
💍 1914/4362

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
23

Auckland
Auckland

1 year
4 years

Methodist Church, Franklin Road, Auckland

14/8235

24 December 1914

Rev. W. A. Burley, Methodist

No	1619
Date of Notice	24 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Waldron Lang	Olive Margaret Christie
BDM Match (98%)	Harold Waldron Laing	Olive Margaret Christie
	💍 1914/4362
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Franklin Road, Auckland
Folio	14/8235
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Burley, Methodist

1620

24 December 1914

Charles Percyboune Kelly
Nina Agnes Wrigley

Charles Swinbourne Kelly
Nina Agnes Wrigley
💍 1915/8484

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

26
25

Auckland
Auckland

6 months
6 years

Holy Trinity Church, Devonport

14/576

24 December 1914

Rev. G. W. Young, Anglican

No	1620
Date of Notice	24 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Percyboune Kelly	Nina Agnes Wrigley
BDM Match (88%)	Charles Swinbourne Kelly	Nina Agnes Wrigley
	💍 1915/8484
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Devonport
Folio	14/576
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Young, Anglican

1621

24 December 1914

Charles James Smith
Eveline Sarah Jamieson

Charles James Smith
Eveline Sarah Jamieson
💍 1915/8553

Bachelor
Spinster

Cutter

29
29

Auckland
Auckland

6 years
6 years

St. Benedict's Church, Auckland

14/629

24 December 1914

St. Rev. P. O'Fillan, Roman Catholic

No	1621
Date of Notice	24 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles James Smith	Eveline Sarah Jamieson
	💍 1915/8553
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cutter
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Benedict's Church, Auckland
Folio	14/629
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1914
Officiating Minister	St. Rev. P. O'Fillan, Roman Catholic

1622

24 December 1914

Patrick Keenan
Mary Muriel McNamara

Patrick Keenan
Mary Muriel McNamara
💍 1914/4357

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist

30
23

Auckland
Ponsonby

3 years
4 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Ponsonby

14/8248

24 December 1914

Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

No	1622
Date of Notice	24 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Keenan	Mary Muriel McNamara
	💍 1914/4357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Ponsonby
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Ponsonby
Folio	14/8248
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cahill, Roman Catholic

1623

24 December 1914

John Stanley Irwin
Grace Savard Smith

John Stanley Irvin
Grace Saward Smith
💍 1914/4369

Bachelor
Spinster

Importer

33
24

Auckland
Ponsonby

4 years
12 years

Home of Bride's Mother, 4 Wallace St, Ponsonby

14/8237

24 December 1914

Mr. F. W. Greenwood, Church of Christ

No	1623
Date of Notice	24 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stanley Irwin	Grace Savard Smith
BDM Match (94%)	John Stanley Irvin	Grace Saward Smith
	💍 1914/4369
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Importer
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Ponsonby
Length of Residence	4 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Home of Bride's Mother, 4 Wallace St, Ponsonby
Folio	14/8237
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Mr. F. W. Greenwood, Church of Christ

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).