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 257

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar R. W. P. M.

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

1076

18 October 1916

Fulton Reid Pratt
Hilda Margaret Liston Dinning

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

36
31

Napier
Auckland

16 years
3 weeks

St Matthews Church, Napier

6702

18 October 1916

Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

No	1076
Date of Notice	18 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fulton Reid Pratt	Hilda Margaret Liston Dinning
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	36	31
Dwelling Place	Napier	Auckland
Length of Residence	16 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Napier
Folio	6702
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

1077

19 October 1916

Clement Roy Spackman
Aileen Moore

Clement Roy Speckman
Aileen Moore
💍 1916/804

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
26

Napier
Auckland

Life
3 weeks

St Barnabas Church, Mt Eden

6703

19 October 1916

Arch-W Calder, Anglican

No	1077
Date of Notice	19 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clement Roy Spackman	Aileen Moore
BDM Match (98%)	Clement Roy Speckman	Aileen Moore
	💍 1916/804
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Auckland
Length of Residence	Life	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Barnabas Church, Mt Eden
Folio	6703
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Arch-W Calder, Anglican

1078

20 October 1916

Eldred Vernon Wadham
Emily Agnes Read

Eldred Vernon Wadham
Emily Agnes Read
💍 1916/811

Bachelor
Spinster

Gas Meter Inspector

27
31

Auckland
Auckland

Life
10 days

St Matthews Church, Auckland

6704

20 October 1916

Rev. J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

No	1078
Date of Notice	20 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eldred Vernon Wadham	Emily Agnes Read
	💍 1916/811
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gas Meter Inspector
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	Life	10 days
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio	6704
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. A. Calder, Anglican

1079

20 October 1916

David Llewellyn Jenkins
Marjorie Bell Townsend

David Llewelyn Jenkins
Marjorie Zell Townsend
💍 1916/812

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

29
23

Auckland
Auckland

3 months
15 years

House at Hayhow, 26 Elmwood St, Ponsonby

6705

20 October 1916

Rev. E. P. Blamires, Methodist

No	1079
Date of Notice	20 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Llewellyn Jenkins	Marjorie Bell Townsend
BDM Match (96%)	David Llewelyn Jenkins	Marjorie Zell Townsend
	💍 1916/812
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 months	15 years
Marriage Place	House at Hayhow, 26 Elmwood St, Ponsonby
Folio	6705
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. P. Blamires, Methodist

1080

20 October 1916

John Claude Sinsted
Louisa Burgess

John Claude Binsted
Louisa Myers
💍 1916/813

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

31
23

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
Life

St Andrews Church, Auckland

6706

20 October 1916

Rev. A. A. Murray, Presbyterian

No	1080
Date of Notice	20 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Claude Sinsted	Louisa Burgess
BDM Match (80%)	John Claude Binsted	Louisa Myers
	💍 1916/813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	Life
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Auckland
Folio	6706
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. A. Murray, Presbyterian

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).