Intentions to Marry, 1915 Albertland to Hamilton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840457, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1915 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1915a contains pages 1-518, covering districts from Albertland to Hamilton

Page 435

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar H. S. Hill

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

03 January 1915

Robert Heavis Anderson
Emily May Wright

Robert Lewis Anderson
Emily May Wright
💍 1915/8626

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Manager
Domestic Duties

31
23

Gisborne
Motu Poverty Bay

5 days
12 days

Private Residence of the bride's parents Kaupons Motu

15/671

03 January 1915

Rev John Lowe Robinson Church of England Matawai

No	1
Date of Notice	03 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Heavis Anderson	Emily May Wright
BDM Match (93%)	Robert Lewis Anderson	Emily May Wright
	💍 1915/8626
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Motu Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	5 days	12 days
Marriage Place	Private Residence of the bride's parents Kaupons Motu
Folio	15/671
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev John Lowe Robinson Church of England Matawai

04 January 1915

Alfred Pillar Stevens
Mary Curran

Alfred Pillar Stevens
Mary Curran
💍 1915/8631

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic Duties

25
25

Gisborne
Gisborne

8 years
9 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church

15/657

04 January 1915

Rev. John Golden Roman Catholic Minister

No	2
Date of Notice	04 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Pillar Stevens	Mary Curran
	💍 1915/8631
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic Duties
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church
Folio	15/657
Consent
Date of Certificate	04 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Golden Roman Catholic Minister

04 January 1915

Norman Alfred Wright
Eva Zealandia Hights

Norman Alfred Wright
Eva Zealandia Light
💍 1915/8543

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Household Duties

26
19

Gisborne Poverty Bay
Gisborne

4 days
4 days

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

15/643

Anna Blackford Cox. (Legal Guardian) by order of Court Solicitor, Gisborne

04 January 1915

Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	3
Date of Notice	04 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Alfred Wright	Eva Zealandia Hights
BDM Match (95%)	Norman Alfred Wright	Eva Zealandia Light
	💍 1915/8543
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Household Duties
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	15/643
Consent	Anna Blackford Cox. (Legal Guardian) by order of Court Solicitor, Gisborne
Date of Certificate	04 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

04 January 1915

John Guy Cleeve Griffiths
Beatryke Mary Wallbone

John Guy Cleeve Griffiths
Beatryx Mary Smallbone
💍 1915/7985

Bachelor
Spinster

Produce Clerk
Domestic Duties

25
27

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 months
10 days

Holy Trinity Church Gisborne

15/1859

04 January 1915

Rev. Matthew William Butterfield Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	04 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Guy Cleeve Griffiths	Beatryke Mary Wallbone
BDM Match (91%)	John Guy Cleeve Griffiths	Beatryx Mary Smallbone
	💍 1915/7985
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Produce Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 months	10 days
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Gisborne
Folio	15/1859
Consent
Date of Certificate	04 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Matthew William Butterfield Church of England

04 January 1915

Ernest Howard Cooke
Ethel Ruth Jones

Ernest Leonard Cook
Ethel Ruth Jones
💍 1915/8613

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor, [illegible]
Domestic Duties

26
22

Mahauria
Ruakituri Poverty Bay

26 years
22 years

St. Luke's Church Waerenga-a-Hika

15/663

04 January 1915

Rev Edgar Ward Church of England / Waerenga-a-hika

No	5
Date of Notice	04 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Howard Cooke	Ethel Ruth Jones
BDM Match (89%)	Ernest Leonard Cook	Ethel Ruth Jones
	💍 1915/8613
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor, [illegible]	Domestic Duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Mahauria	Ruakituri Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	26 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church Waerenga-a-Hika
Folio	15/663
Consent
Date of Certificate	04 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Edgar Ward Church of England / Waerenga-a-hika

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).