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 453

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar 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

1st June 1915

Arthur Walter Meade
Ruby Watt Turnbull

Arthur Walter Meade
Ruby Watt Turnbull
💍 1915/10361

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Hand
Domestic Servant

34
24

Tiniroto Poverty Bay
Gisborne

11 years
Life

Holy Trinity Church Gisborne

3117

1st June 1915

Rev Horace Packe Church of England (Archdeacon)

No	82
Date of Notice	1st June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Walter Meade	Ruby Watt Turnbull
	💍 1915/10361
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Hand	Domestic Servant
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Tiniroto Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	11 years	Life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Gisborne
Folio	3117
Consent
Date of Certificate	1st June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Horace Packe Church of England (Archdeacon)

1st June 1915

Richard Eade
Margaret Mary Colhoun

Richard Eade
Margaret Mary Colhoun
💍 1915/1225

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager
Domestic Servant

31
28

Gisborne Poverty Bay
Gisborne

6 days
3 years

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church Gisborne

3116

1st June 1915

Rev Thomas Hane Roman Catholic Minister

No	83
Date of Notice	1st June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Eade	Margaret Mary Colhoun
	💍 1915/1225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager	Domestic Servant
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Gisborne Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	6 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church Gisborne
Folio	3116
Consent
Date of Certificate	1st June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Hane Roman Catholic Minister

4th June 1915

James Percy Caffey Gordon
Ada Topham

James Percy Gaffey Gordon
Ada Topham
💍 1915/1239

Widower
Spinster

Trover
Housekeeper

43
26

Gisborne
Gisborne

9 years
9 years

The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

3106

4th June 1915

Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	84
Date of Notice	4th June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Percy Caffey Gordon	Ada Topham
BDM Match (98%)	James Percy Gaffey Gordon	Ada Topham
	💍 1915/1239
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Trover	Housekeeper
Age	43	26
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	3106
Consent
Date of Certificate	4th June 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

5th June 1915

Will Montefiore
May Florence Smith

Will Montefiore
May Florence Smith
💍 1915/1240

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Servant

28
21

Ormond Poverty Bay
Gisborne

8 years
18 months

The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

3107

5th June 1915

Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	85
Date of Notice	5th June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Will Montefiore	May Florence Smith
	💍 1915/1240
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Servant
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Ormond Poverty Bay	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8 years	18 months
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	3107
Consent
Date of Certificate	5th June 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

7th June 1915

Stephen England Gillingham
Lily Margaret Wachsmann

Stephen England Gillingham
Lily Margaret Wachsmann
💍 1915/1227

Widower
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic Duties

33
27

Mangapoiro Gisborne
Gisborne

10 years
11 years

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne

3118

7th June 1915

Rev H. N. Wheldon Presbyterian Minister

No	86
Date of Notice	7th June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen England Gillingham	Lily Margaret Wachsmann
	💍 1915/1227
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Mangapoiro Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne
Folio	3118
Consent
Date of Certificate	7th June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev H. N. Wheldon Presbyterian Minister

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).