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 757

District of Tauranga Quarter ending 30 September 1914 Registrar William Alfred Smith Willott

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

27 July 1914

Albert Lapham Rawles
Valena Susanah Dalzell

Albert Laphem Rawles
Valena Susanah Dalzell
💍 1914/1887

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic duties

36
23

Tauranga
Tauranga

6 years
1 year

Residence of Miss Rosa Brown, Rawles, Tauranga

5535

27 July 1914

Rev A. C. Wedderspoon

No	18
Date of Notice	27 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Lapham Rawles	Valena Susanah Dalzell
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Laphem Rawles	Valena Susanah Dalzell
	💍 1914/1887
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic duties
Age	36	23
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Rosa Brown, Rawles, Tauranga
Folio	5535
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev A. C. Wedderspoon

3 August 1914

Alfred Leonard Wall
Cecilia Emily Foster

Alfred Leonard Wall
Cecilia Emily Fowler
💍 1914/1528

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

28
27

Tauranga
Tauranga

7 years
4 years

Residence of Mr. John Wall, Tauranga

5223

3 August 1914

Rev Jas Richards

No	19
Date of Notice	3 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Leonard Wall	Cecilia Emily Foster
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Leonard Wall	Cecilia Emily Fowler
	💍 1914/1528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. John Wall, Tauranga
Folio	5223
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Richards

20 August 1914

Ernest Tremaine
Mary Podesta

Ernest Tremaine
Mary Podesta
💍 1914/1886

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic duties

34
34

Tauranga
Tauranga

18 months
2 years

Residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Tremaine, The Camp, Tauranga

5534

20 August 1914

Rev Alexander Carrick Wedderspoon

No	20
Date of Notice	20 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Tremaine	Mary Podesta
	💍 1914/1886
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	18 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Tremaine, The Camp, Tauranga
Folio	5534
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev Alexander Carrick Wedderspoon

7 September 1914

Arnold Hugh Foxcroft
Agnes Elsie Clark

Arnold Hugh Foxcroft
Agnes Elsie Clark
💍 1914/1529

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

31
25

Tauranga
Tauranga

3 years
All her life

Residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Annie Clark, Edgecumbe Road, Tauranga

5224

7 September 1914

Rev Jas Richards

No	21
Date of Notice	7 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arnold Hugh Foxcroft	Agnes Elsie Clark
	💍 1914/1529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	3 years	All her life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Annie Clark, Edgecumbe Road, Tauranga
Folio	5224
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Richards

26 September 1914

Harold Joseph Francis Zutchen
Mildred Zutchen

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

27
27

Greerton, Tauranga
Tauranga

12 years
14 years

Residence of Mrs. Sarah Zutchen, 11th Avenue, Tauranga

5225

26 September 1914

Rev Jas Richards

No	22
Date of Notice	26 September 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Joseph Francis Zutchen	Mildred Zutchen
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Greerton, Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	12 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Sarah Zutchen, 11th Avenue, Tauranga
Folio	5225
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 September 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Richards

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).