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 653

District of Opotiki Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar F. W. Webb, Deputy Registrar

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

19 January 1914

Matthew Patterson
Ruby Reece

Matthew Patterson
Ruby Reece
💍 1914/6938

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

33
25

Opotiki
Opotiki

12 years
25 years

St Stephens Church, Opotiki

921

19 January 1914

G. W. Smailes, Church of England Minister

No	1
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Patterson	Ruby Reece
	💍 1914/6938
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	25
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	12 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church, Opotiki
Folio	921
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	G. W. Smailes, Church of England Minister

21 January 1914

John Edward Whitefield Gunther
Mary Gronow

John Edward Gunther Whitefield
Mary Gronow
💍 1914/6939

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Duties

20
25

Opotiki
Opotiki

6 years
7 weeks

at the office of the Registrar, Opotiki

922

John Gunther, Father of Groom

21 January 1914

G. O. Stephenson, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	21 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Edward Whitefield Gunther	Mary Gronow
BDM Match (73%)	John Edward Gunther Whitefield	Mary Gronow
	💍 1914/6939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	20	25
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	6 years	7 weeks
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar, Opotiki
Folio	922
Consent	John Gunther, Father of Groom
Date of Certificate	21 January 1914
Officiating Minister	G. O. Stephenson, Registrar

28 January 1914

Walter Joseph Scott
Alice Maria Tidmarsh

Walter Joseph Scott
Alice Maria Tidmarsh
💍 1914/6942

Bachelor
Spinster

Journalist
Domestic Duties

32
30

Opotiki
Opotiki

6 years
10 months

Methodist Church, Opotiki

925

28 January 1914

W. A. Watson, Methodist Minister

No	3
Date of Notice	28 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Joseph Scott	Alice Maria Tidmarsh
	💍 1914/6942
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Journalist	Domestic Duties
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	6 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Opotiki
Folio	925
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1914
Officiating Minister	W. A. Watson, Methodist Minister

11 February 1914

Bernard Parkinson
Annie Maka

Bernard Parkinson
Annie Maka
💍 1914/6941

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Domestic Duties

23
25

Opotiki
Opotiki

10 years
3 years

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Opotiki

924

11 February 1914

J. W. Smiers, Roman Catholic Minister

No	4
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard Parkinson	Annie Maka
	💍 1914/6941
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Domestic Duties
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Opotiki
Folio	924
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	J. W. Smiers, Roman Catholic Minister

11 February 1914

William Henry Jeffery
Charlotte Maria Cresswell

William Henry Jefferey
Charlotte Maria Cressell
💍 1914/6936

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
25

Opotiki
Opotiki

32 years
25 years

St Stephens Church, Opotiki

920

11 February 1914

G. W. Smailes, Church of England Minister

No	5
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Jeffery	Charlotte Maria Cresswell
BDM Match (96%)	William Henry Jefferey	Charlotte Maria Cressell
	💍 1914/6936
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	32 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church, Opotiki
Folio	920
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	G. W. Smailes, Church of England Minister

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).