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 016

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar Thomas Culpan

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

13 January 1914

John Ernest Selchamber
Caroline Ellen Wright

John Ernest Belchamber
Caroline Ellen Wright
💍 1914/6699

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

23
18

Auckland
Avondale

22 years
3 1/2 years

House of Bride's Father, East Rd

554

Stephen Wright, Father of Bride

13 January 1914

Rev. G. Marshall

No	50
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ernest Selchamber	Caroline Ellen Wright
BDM Match (98%)	John Ernest Belchamber	Caroline Ellen Wright
	💍 1914/6699
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Avondale
Length of Residence	22 years	3 1/2 years
Marriage Place	House of Bride's Father, East Rd
Folio	554
Consent	Stephen Wright, Father of Bride
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Marshall

13 January 1914

Ernest Kemp
May Hill

Ernest Kemp Asher
May Hill
💍 1914/432

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

27
21

Auckland
Auckland

8 years
4 months

Registrar's Office

122

13 January 1914

Registrar

No	51
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Kemp	May Hill
BDM Match (82%)	Ernest Kemp Asher	May Hill
	💍 1914/432
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	122
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Registrar

13 January 1914

Alexander Sim
Elizabeth Elsie Beaumont-Lyons

Alexander Sim
Elizabeth Elsie Beaumont Lyons
💍 1914/6695

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Assistant

23
20

Auckland
Onehunga

10 months
6 months

Residence of Rev. D. D. Scott

575

27 January 1914

Rev. D. D. Scott

No	52
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Sim	Elizabeth Elsie Beaumont-Lyons
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Sim	Elizabeth Elsie Beaumont Lyons
	💍 1914/6695
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Assistant
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Onehunga
Length of Residence	10 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. D. D. Scott
Folio	575
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. D. Scott

13 January 1914

Thomas Clarence Gordon
Alma Stafford

Thomas Clarence Gordon
Alma Stafford
💍 1914/433

Bachelor
Spinster

Boiler Maker

23
21

Auckland
Auckland

1 year
10 months

Registrar's Office

123

13 January 1914

Registrar

No	53
Date of Notice	13 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Clarence Gordon	Alma Stafford
	💍 1914/433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boiler Maker
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	10 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	123
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Registrar

14 January 1914

James Rose Fisher
Ivy Myrtle Fisher

James Cox
Ivy Myrtle Fisher
💍 1914/6640

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
18

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
6 months

P. Matthews Church

441

Joel Fisher, Father

14 January 1914

Rev. G. A. Robjohns

No	54
Date of Notice	14 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Rose Fisher	Ivy Myrtle Fisher
BDM Match (71%)	James Cox	Ivy Myrtle Fisher
	💍 1914/6640
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	P. Matthews Church
Folio	441
Consent	Joel Fisher, Father
Date of Certificate	14 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. A. Robjohns

14 January 1914

Frederick Talbot Daniels
Elsie Stenhouse Jones

Frederick Albert Daniels
Elsie Stenhouse Jones
💍 1914/434

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

27
27

Auckland
Auckland

20 years
Life

Registrar's Office

124

14 January 1914

Registrar

No	55
Date of Notice	14 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Talbot Daniels	Elsie Stenhouse Jones
BDM Match (92%)	Frederick Albert Daniels	Elsie Stenhouse Jones
	💍 1914/434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	20 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	124
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Registrar

14 January 1914

Sidney Phillip Brown
Dora Booth Rawnsley

Sidney Phillip Brown
Dora Booth Rawnsley
💍 1914/6705

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

19
22

Auckland
Onehunga

5 years
7 months

Presbyterian Manse

560

William Brown, Father

14 January 1914

Rev. D. D. Scott

No	56
Date of Notice	14 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Phillip Brown	Dora Booth Rawnsley
	💍 1914/6705
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	19	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Onehunga
Length of Residence	5 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse
Folio	560
Consent	William Brown, Father
Date of Certificate	14 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. D. Scott

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).