Intentions to Marry, 1915 Helensville to Whangaroa

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840458, 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.

1915b contains pages 519-1020, covering districts from Helensville to Whangaroa

Page 559

District of Huntly Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar A. S. Mathews

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

14 January 1915

Thomas Pawson
Mary Tarawhiti

Thomas Pawson
Mary Tarawhiti
💍 1915/8566

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

23
17

Huntly
Waahi Huntly

5 years
17 years

Office of the Registrar Huntly

691

R. R. Tarawhiti Father

14 January 1915

A. S. Mathews Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	14 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Pawson	Mary Tarawhiti
	💍 1915/8566
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Waahi Huntly
Length of Residence	5 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Huntly
Folio	691
Consent	R. R. Tarawhiti Father
Date of Certificate	14 January 1915
Officiating Minister	A. S. Mathews Registrar

21 January 1915

William Graham Brocklebank
Mary May Wilson

William Graham Brocklebank
Mary May Wilson
💍 1915/86

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Servant

28
23

Huntly
Huntly

22 years
8 months

St Paul's Church of England Huntly

689

21 January 1915

Rev J. L. A. Kayll

No	2
Date of Notice	21 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Graham Brocklebank	Mary May Wilson
	💍 1915/86
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Servant
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	22 years	8 months
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church of England Huntly
Folio	689
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. L. A. Kayll

28 January 1915

Robert Richard Jones
Catherine Cheyne

Robert Richard Jones
Catherine Cheyne
💍 1915/8565

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
27

Te Hoe
Matahuru

22 years
21 years

Dwelling house of John C Cheyne Matahuru

690

28 January 1915

Rev. J. E. Ward

No	3
Date of Notice	28 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Richard Jones	Catherine Cheyne
	💍 1915/8565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Te Hoe	Matahuru
Length of Residence	22 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of John C Cheyne Matahuru
Folio	690
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Ward

15 February 1915

Frank Jakeman
Mere Ani Tuhoropunga

Frank Jakeman
Mereani Tuhoropunga
💍 1915/8563

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

23
22

Huntly
Huntly West

23 years
22 years

Office of the Registrar Huntly

688

15 January 1915

A. S. Mathews Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	15 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Jakeman	Mere Ani Tuhoropunga
BDM Match (95%)	Frank Jakeman	Mereani Tuhoropunga
	💍 1915/8563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly West
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Huntly
Folio	688
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1915
Officiating Minister	A. S. Mathews Registrar

23 March 1915

Glen Dene Forster Mottram
Elsie Green

Glenn Dene Forster Mottram
Elsie Green
💍 1915/8562

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman and timekeeper
Domestic Duties

24
21

Huntly
Huntly

5 years
12 years

Methodist Church Huntly

687

23 March 1915

Mr M. J. Evans

No	5
Date of Notice	23 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Glen Dene Forster Mottram	Elsie Green
BDM Match (98%)	Glenn Dene Forster Mottram	Elsie Green
	💍 1915/8562
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman and timekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	5 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Huntly
Folio	687
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Mr M. J. Evans

25 March 1915

Geoffrey Henry Jenner Mellsop
Frances Isabella Herd

Geoffrey Henry Jenner Mellsop
Frances Isabel Herd
💍 1915/1313

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer
Domestic Duties

27
26

Huntly
Huntly

3 years
11 years

St Paul's Church of England Huntly

3180

25 March 1915

Rev J. T. McWilliam

No	6
Date of Notice	25 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey Henry Jenner Mellsop	Frances Isabella Herd
BDM Match (95%)	Geoffrey Henry Jenner Mellsop	Frances Isabel Herd
	💍 1915/1313
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	3 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church of England Huntly
Folio	3180
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. T. McWilliam

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).