Intentions to Marry, 1916 Albertland to Hamilton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840463, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1916 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.

1916a contains pages 1-418, covering districts from Albertland to Hamilton

Page 041

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar L. W. S. McLaurin

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

161

5 February 1916

Francis Reginald Simmonds
Ellen Walters

Francis Reginald Simmonds
Ellen Kate Mason Walters
💍 1916/369

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

31
22

Auckland
Auckland

4 days
4 days

Registrar's office Auckland

910

5 February 1916

Registrar

No	161
Date of Notice	5 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Reginald Simmonds	Ellen Walters
BDM Match (77%)	Francis Reginald Simmonds	Ellen Kate Mason Walters
	💍 1916/369
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Auckland
Folio	910
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar

162

7 February 1916

John Nicholson
Ethel Snaddon

John Nicholson
Mary Ethel Spraggon
💍 1916/10582

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Porter

23
18

Auckland
Auckland

12 months
2 months

Church of the Holy Sepulchre Auckland

1758

John Snaddon Father

7 February 1916

Rev. V. G. B. Venables Anglican

No	162
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Nicholson	Ethel Snaddon
BDM Match (76%)	John Nicholson	Mary Ethel Spraggon
	💍 1916/10582
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Porter
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	12 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Church of the Holy Sepulchre Auckland
Folio	1758
Consent	John Snaddon Father
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. V. G. B. Venables Anglican

163

7 February 1916

Cecil Bland
Jessie Lavinia Carroll

Cecil Bland
Jessie Lavinia Carroll
💍 1916/8953

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Engineer

22
20

Auckland
Auckland Parnell

2 years
life

St Mary's Cathedral Parnell

1759

Agnes Carroll mother

7 February 1916

Rev. W. Lambert Anglican

No	163
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Bland	Jessie Lavinia Carroll
	💍 1916/8953
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Engineer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland Parnell
Length of Residence	2 years	life
Marriage Place	St Mary's Cathedral Parnell
Folio	1759
Consent	Agnes Carroll mother
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Lambert Anglican

164

7 February 1916

Savisa Lovich
Iva Duhovich

Barisa Lovich
Jere Duhovich
💍 1916/8931

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
32

Auckland
Auckland

6 days
6 days

St Patrick's Cathedral Auckland

1761

7 February 1916

Rev. W. J. Murphy Roman Catholic

No	164
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Savisa Lovich	Iva Duhovich
BDM Match (77%)	Barisa Lovich	Jere Duhovich
	💍 1916/8931
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	32
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Cathedral Auckland
Folio	1761
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Murphy Roman Catholic

165

7 February 1916

Percival Augustus Hillary
Gertrude Clark

Percival Augustus Hillary
Gertrude Clark
💍 1916/8932

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

30
27

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
8 weeks

St Matthew's Church Auckland

1762

7 February 1916

Rev. W. E. Gillam Anglican

No	165
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Augustus Hillary	Gertrude Clark
	💍 1916/8932
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	8 weeks
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Auckland
Folio	1762
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam Anglican

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).