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 365

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar H. 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

1 June 1916

Cecil Henry Francis Lawson
Kathleen Doreen Kennedy (adopted)

Cecil Henry Francis Lawson
Kathleen Doreen Kennedy
💍 1916/6821

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

24
15

Gisborne
Gisborne

2 years
10 years

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

3414

William Brown Kennedy (father)

1 June 1916

Rev. Eccles Alex McCutcheon, Church of England

No	89
Date of Notice	1 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Henry Francis Lawson	Kathleen Doreen Kennedy (adopted)
BDM Match (85%)	Cecil Henry Francis Lawson	Kathleen Doreen Kennedy
	💍 1916/6821
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	24	15
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	3414
Consent	William Brown Kennedy (father)
Date of Certificate	1 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Eccles Alex McCutcheon, Church of England

3 June 1916

Henry Ernest Read Bloomfield
Eva Myrtle Close

Henry Ernest Read Bloomfield
Eva Myrtle Close
💍 1916/6822

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic
Domestic Duties

28
20

Kaiti, Poverty Bay
Victoria Township, Gisborne

6 months
4 years

Private residence of Mr. H. E. Bright, Beach Road, Kaiti

3415

3 June 1916

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	90
Date of Notice	3 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Ernest Read Bloomfield	Eva Myrtle Close
	💍 1916/6822
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic	Domestic Duties
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Kaiti, Poverty Bay	Victoria Township, Gisborne
Length of Residence	6 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Private residence of Mr. H. E. Bright, Beach Road, Kaiti
Folio	3415
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

2 June 1916

Frederick Harvey Traver
Irene Eva Poole

Frederick Henry Francis
Irene Eva Poole
💍 1916/6825

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

33
24

Gisborne
Gisborne, Poverty Bay

4 months
4 months

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay

3418

3 June 1916

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	91
Date of Notice	2 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Harvey Traver	Irene Eva Poole
BDM Match (80%)	Frederick Henry Francis	Irene Eva Poole
	💍 1916/6825
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	The Wesleyan Methodist Church, Gisborne, Poverty Bay
Folio	3418
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

3 June 1916

Horace Thompson
Gertrude Beatrice Walker

Horace Thompson
Gertrude Beatrice Walker
💍 1916/6824

Widower
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

35
26

Gisborne
Gisborne

4 years
20 years

Residence of the Bride's parents, 100 Rutene Road, Kaiti, Gisborne

3417

3 June 1916

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	92
Date of Notice	3 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Thompson	Gertrude Beatrice Walker
	💍 1916/6824
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	35	26
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Bride's parents, 100 Rutene Road, Kaiti, Gisborne
Folio	3417
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

3 June 1916

Norman Gordon Veale
Marjorie Lucy Frazer Wood

Norman Gordon De Cent
Marjorie Lucy Fraser Wood
💍 1916/12125

Bachelor
Spinster

Sanitary Plumber
Housemaid

27
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

25 years
7 years

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne

3416

3 June 1916

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	93
Date of Notice	3 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Gordon Veale	Marjorie Lucy Frazer Wood
BDM Match (86%)	Norman Gordon De Cent	Marjorie Lucy Fraser Wood
	💍 1916/12125
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sanitary Plumber	Housemaid
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	25 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne
Folio	3416
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, 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).