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 351

District of Dargaville Quarter ending 30 September 1914 Registrar Wm Macaulay

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 July 1914

Wallin Herbert Brown
Hilda May Cates

Walter Herbert Brown
Hilda May Cates
💍 1914/1531

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Household duties

29
23

Aoroa
Aoroa

3 years
12 years

St Andrews Church, Dargaville

5219

13 July 1914

Rev. R. Hitch

No	10
Date of Notice	13 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wallin Herbert Brown	Hilda May Cates
BDM Match (93%)	Walter Herbert Brown	Hilda May Cates
	💍 1914/1531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Household duties
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Aoroa	Aoroa
Length of Residence	3 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Dargaville
Folio	5219
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Hitch

10 August 1914

Samuel Ernest Kitchen
Lottie May Webster

Samuel Ernest Kitchen
Lottie May Webster
💍 1914/1518

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Household duties

30
25

Kaihu
Kaihu

4 years in house of his mother
9 years

Residence of Webster, Kaihu

5213

10 August 1914

Rev. F. Latter

No	11
Date of Notice	10 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Ernest Kitchen	Lottie May Webster
	💍 1914/1518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Household duties
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Kaihu	Kaihu
Length of Residence	4 years in house of his mother	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Webster, Kaihu
Folio	5213
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. Latter

31 August 1914

Charles Henry Sherman
Elizabeth Marion Sherman

Charles Henry Sherman
Elizabeth Morron
💍 1914/1519

Bachelor
Spinster

Shipwright
Domestic duties

29
22

Tangowahine
Tangowahine

7 years
3 years

Tangowahine Hall

5214

31 August 1914

Rev. F. Latter

No	12
Date of Notice	31 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Sherman	Elizabeth Marion Sherman
BDM Match (79%)	Charles Henry Sherman	Elizabeth Morron
	💍 1914/1519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shipwright	Domestic duties
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Tangowahine	Tangowahine
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Tangowahine Hall
Folio	5214
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. Latter

12 September 1914

William John Archibald Gorrie
Alice Georgina Elizabeth Smith

William John Archibald Gorrie
Alice Georgina Elizabeth Smith
💍 1914/1523

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

19
19

Titirangi
Aoroa

1 year
4 years

Residence of Geo Cates

5218

Thomas Lennox, father of groom; George Smith, father of bride

12 September 1914

Rev. R. Hitch

No	13
Date of Notice	12 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Archibald Gorrie	Alice Georgina Elizabeth Smith
	💍 1914/1523
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Titirangi	Aoroa
Length of Residence	1 year	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Geo Cates
Folio	5218
Consent	Thomas Lennox, father of groom; George Smith, father of bride
Date of Certificate	12 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Hitch

14 September 1914

Denis Robert Campbell
Kate Kerr Baillie

Denis Robert Campbell
Kate Kerr Baillie
💍 1914/1522

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

22
22

Dargaville
Dargaville

20 years
3 years

Residence of Mrs Clark, Victoria Street, Dargaville

5217

14 September 1914

Rev. R. Hitch

No	14
Date of Notice	14 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Robert Campbell	Kate Kerr Baillie
	💍 1914/1522
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Dargaville	Dargaville
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Clark, Victoria Street, Dargaville
Folio	5217
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Hitch

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).