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 1033

District of Waitaki Plains Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar H. Dixon

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

21 October 1914

Clyde Leyton Sole
Rita Coralie Sharp

Clyde Leyton Sole
Rita Coralie Sharp
💍 1914/3463

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

23
23

Inaha
Inaha

3 years
8 years

Registrars office, Manaia

14/7368

21 October 1914

H. Dixon, Registrar

No	30
Date of Notice	21 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clyde Leyton Sole	Rita Coralie Sharp
	💍 1914/3463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Inaha	Inaha
Length of Residence	3 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrars office, Manaia
Folio	14/7368
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1914
Officiating Minister	H. Dixon, Registrar

29 October 1914

John McLeod
Adinah Russell

John McLeod
Adinah Russell
💍 1914/3485

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Domestic

25
20

Inaha
Inaha

4 years
8 years

Presbyterian Church, Manaia

14/7366

Wm. Russell, Father

29 October 1914

Rev. W. H. Howes, Presbyterian

No	31
Date of Notice	29 October 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McLeod	Adinah Russell
	💍 1914/3485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Domestic
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Inaha	Inaha
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Manaia
Folio	14/7366
Consent	Wm. Russell, Father
Date of Certificate	29 October 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Howes, Presbyterian

11 November 1914

William Henry Russell
Josephine Eva Ward

William Henry Russell
Josephine Eva Ward
💍 1914/3486

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

24
20

Inaha
Manaia

5 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Manaia

14/7367

Wilhelmina Ward, Mother

11 November 1914

Rev. W. H. Howes, Presbyterian

No	32
Date of Notice	11 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Russell	Josephine Eva Ward
	💍 1914/3486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Inaha	Manaia
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Manaia
Folio	14/7367
Consent	Wilhelmina Ward, Mother
Date of Certificate	11 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Howes, Presbyterian

27 November 1914

Henry Alexander Bryant
Veronica Ellen Agnes Cecilia

Henry Alexander Bryant
Veronica Ellen Agnes Cecilia Whyte
💍 1914/3483

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

19
20

OKaiawa
OKaiawa

4 months
4 months

Roman Catholic Church, OKaiawa

14/7364

George Bryant, Father

27 November 1914

Rev. W. J. Saunderson, Roman Catholic

No	33
Date of Notice	27 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Alexander Bryant	Veronica Ellen Agnes Cecilia
BDM Match (91%)	Henry Alexander Bryant	Veronica Ellen Agnes Cecilia Whyte
	💍 1914/3483
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	OKaiawa	OKaiawa
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, OKaiawa
Folio	14/7364
Consent	George Bryant, Father
Date of Certificate	27 November 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Saunderson, Roman Catholic

9 December 1914

Michael Brown
Elizabeth Catherine Gibson

Michael Brown
Elizabeth Catherine Gibson
💍 1914/3484

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Tailoress

29
23

Manaia
Manaia

5 years
9 years

Roman Catholic Church, Manaia

14/7365

9 December 1914

Rev. W. J. Saunderson, Roman Catholic

No	34
Date of Notice	9 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Brown	Elizabeth Catherine Gibson
	💍 1914/3484
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Tailoress
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Manaia
Length of Residence	5 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Manaia
Folio	14/7365
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Saunderson, Roman Catholic

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).