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 415

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar J. S. Bond

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

2 January 1914

Henry Watchitt
Mihi Maraea Tunoa

Henry Matchitt
Mihi Maraea Tunoa
💍 1914/6518

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

24
23

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hamilton

14/318

2 January 1914

J.S. Bond

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Watchitt	Mihi Maraea Tunoa
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Matchitt	Mihi Maraea Tunoa
	💍 1914/6518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hamilton
Folio	14/318
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1914
Officiating Minister	J.S. Bond

6 January 1914

Joseph Andrew Montie Rogers
Rose Beckett Godfrey

Joseph Andrew Montie Rogers
Rose Beckett Godfrey
💍 1914/6914

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Home duties

23
20

Hamilton
Hamilton East

23 years
1 year

House of Mr. J.W. Whittington

14/870

John William Whittington, the guardian

6 January 1914

R. McCully

No	2
Date of Notice	6 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Andrew Montie Rogers	Rose Beckett Godfrey
	💍 1914/6914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Home duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton East
Length of Residence	23 years	1 year
Marriage Place	House of Mr. J.W. Whittington
Folio	14/870
Consent	John William Whittington, the guardian
Date of Certificate	6 January 1914
Officiating Minister	R. McCully

7 January 1914

Thomas McKeown, Jnr.
Margaret Ryan

Thomas McKeown
Margaret Ryon
💍 1914/916

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Housekeeper

25
21

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
11 years

Roman Catholic Church

14/4634

7 January 1914

Dean Darby

No	3
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas McKeown, Jnr.	Margaret Ryan
BDM Match (81%)	Thomas McKeown	Margaret Ryon
	💍 1914/916
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Housekeeper
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	11 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	14/4634
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Dean Darby

9 January 1914

David Mathieson, Jnr.
Ella Asprey Biggs

David Mathieson
Ella Asprey Biggs
💍 1914/917

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Domestic duties

24
19

Hamilton
Hamilton

19 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Church

14/4635

Matthew Henry Biggs, the father

9 January 1914

Dean Darby

No	4
Date of Notice	9 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Mathieson, Jnr.	Ella Asprey Biggs
BDM Match (86%)	David Mathieson	Ella Asprey Biggs
	💍 1914/917
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Domestic duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	19 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	14/4635
Consent	Matthew Henry Biggs, the father
Date of Certificate	9 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Dean Darby

16 January 1914

John Spencer Thompson
Blanche Wilson

John Spencer Thompson
Blanche Wilson
💍 1914/9114

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

41
25

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
25 years

St. Peter's Church of England

14/4210

16 January 1914

Archdeacon Cowie

No	5
Date of Notice	16 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Spencer Thompson	Blanche Wilson
	💍 1914/9114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	41	25
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church of England
Folio	14/4210
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon Cowie

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).