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 1024

District of Stratford Quarter ending 31 December 1914 Registrar S. A. James

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

20 November 1914

Lawrence William Jerry
Elsie Vickers

Lawrence William Terry
Elsie Vickers
💍 1914/3544

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy factory assistant

23
17

Ngaere
Midhirst

2 months
14 years

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

14/7349

John Vickers, father

20 November 1914

S. A. James, Registrar

No	56
Date of Notice	20 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence William Jerry	Elsie Vickers
BDM Match (98%)	Lawrence William Terry	Elsie Vickers
	💍 1914/3544
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy factory assistant
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Ngaere	Midhirst
Length of Residence	2 months	14 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	14/7349
Consent	John Vickers, father
Date of Certificate	20 November 1914
Officiating Minister	S. A. James, Registrar

23 November 1914

William James Broaddate
Florence Annie Gibson

William James Croasdale
Florence Annie Gibson
💍 1914/3545

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
25

Stratford
Stratford

2 years
3 years

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

14/7350

23 November 1914

S. A. James, Registrar

No	57
Date of Notice	23 November 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Broaddate	Florence Annie Gibson
BDM Match (94%)	William James Croasdale	Florence Annie Gibson
	💍 1914/3545
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	14/7350
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 November 1914
Officiating Minister	S. A. James, Registrar

11 December 1914

Francis Joseph Payne
Ethel Edith Smith

Francis Joseph Payne
Ethel Edith Smith
💍 1914/3543

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
21

Midhirst
Midhurst

3 weeks
3 weeks

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

14/7348

11 December 1914

S. A. James, Registrar

No	58
Date of Notice	11 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Joseph Payne	Ethel Edith Smith
	💍 1914/3543
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Midhirst	Midhurst
Length of Residence	3 weeks	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	14/7348
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1914
Officiating Minister	S. A. James, Registrar

22 December 1914

John Frederick Saggers
Mary Ellen O'Leary

Daniel Cornelius O'Leary
Mary Ellen O'Leary
💍 1914/7388

Widower
Spinster

Labourer

39
29

Tahora
Tahora

3 years
9 months

Roman Catholic Church at Stratford

14/7356

22 December 1914

Rev. J. Y. Maples, Roman Catholic

No	59
Date of Notice	22 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Frederick Saggers	Mary Ellen O'Leary
BDM Match (60%)	Daniel Cornelius O'Leary	Mary Ellen O'Leary
	💍 1914/7388
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Tahora	Tahora
Length of Residence	3 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Stratford
Folio	14/7356
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Y. Maples, Roman Catholic

22 December 1914

Jens Albert Hansen
Sarah Gertrude Alessa Perrott

Jens Albert Hansen
Sarah Gertrude Alessa Perrott
💍 1914/3551

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
18

Whangamomona
Whangamomona

18 months
18 months

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

14/7355

Gilbert Tom Perrott, father

22 December 1914

Rev. G. W. Howard, Church of England

No	60
Date of Notice	22 December 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jens Albert Hansen	Sarah Gertrude Alessa Perrott
	💍 1914/3551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Whangamomona	Whangamomona
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	14/7355
Consent	Gilbert Tom Perrott, father
Date of Certificate	22 December 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Howard, Church of England

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).