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 727

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar Charles Vernon Roberts

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

5 October 1914

Alexander Roy Munro
Agnes Harriet Wilson

Alexander Roy Munro
Agnes Harriet Wilson
💍 1914/3621

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Household duties

20
18

Rotorua
Rotorua

7 years
3 years at Chinemutu

St Michael's Roman Catholic Church

7525

Alex Munro, Father

5 October 1914

Rev. W. Dean & Lightheart

No	32
Date of Notice	5 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Roy Munro	Agnes Harriet Wilson
	💍 1914/3621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Household duties
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years at Chinemutu
Marriage Place	St Michael's Roman Catholic Church
Folio	7525
Consent	Alex Munro, Father
Date of Certificate	5 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Dean & Lightheart

10 November 1914

Rene Peise
Anne Marie Joseph de Montaign

Divorced

Gentleman

Rotorua
Rotorua

10 months

Registrar's Office, Courthouse

7523

10 November 1914

H. E. Gilbert, Registrar

No	33
Date of Notice	10 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rene Peise	Anne Marie Joseph de Montaign
Condition	Divorced
Profession	Gentleman
Age	33
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	10 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Courthouse
Folio	7523
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1914
Officiating Minister	H. E. Gilbert, Registrar

24 November 1914

Frederick William Smith
Annie Boswell

Frederick William Smith
Annie Boswell
💍 1914/3620

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic duties

22
20

Rotorua
Rotorua

6 years
7 months

Methodist Church

7524

Annie Boswell, Mother

24 November 1914

Rev. H. Peat

No	34
Date of Notice	24 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Smith	Annie Boswell
	💍 1914/3620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic duties
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	6 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church
Folio	7524
Consent	Annie Boswell, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Peat

27 November 1914

James Allan Melville
Sophie Jeanette Randall

James Allan Colville
Sophia Jeanette Randall
💍 1914/3618

Divorced
Spinster

Dairyman
Cook

44
38

Rotorua
Rotorua

5 years
8 months

Methodist Church, Hinemoa

7522

27 November 1914

Rev. H. Peat

No	35
Date of Notice	27 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Allan Melville	Sophie Jeanette Randall
BDM Match (93%)	James Allan Colville	Sophia Jeanette Randall
	💍 1914/3618
Condition	Divorced	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman	Cook
Age	44	38
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	5 years	8 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Hinemoa
Folio	7522
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Peat

12 December 1914

William Hennessy
Lilian May Brown

William Hennessy
Lilian Mary Brown
💍 1914/3617

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

27
18

Rotorua
Rotorua

2 months
2 months

St Michael's Roman Catholic Church at Chinemutu

7521

16 December 1914

Jos. Aug. Wevolder

No	36
Date of Notice	12 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hennessy	Lilian May Brown
BDM Match (97%)	William Hennessy	Lilian Mary Brown
	💍 1914/3617
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	St Michael's Roman Catholic Church at Chinemutu
Folio	7521
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Jos. Aug. Wevolder

7 December 1914

Lancelot James Tingle
Ada Stewart

Lancelot James Tingle
Ada Stewart
💍 1914/3616

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Porter
Tailoress

34
28

Rotorua
Rotorua

11 months
3 days

Registrar's Office, Courthouse, Rotorua

7520

7 December 1914

C. V. Roberts, Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	7 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lancelot James Tingle	Ada Stewart
	💍 1914/3616
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Porter	Tailoress
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	11 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Courthouse, Rotorua
Folio	7520
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 December 1914
Officiating Minister	C. V. Roberts, Registrar

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).