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 381

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar H. G. Bell

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

168

19 December 1916

George Kelly Jnr
Edith Kirkpatrick

George Kelly
Edith Kirkpatrick
💍 1916/2118

Bachelor
Widow

Plasterer's Labourer
Domestic Duties

42
45

Gisborne
Gisborne

4 years
4 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

7314

19 December 1916

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	168
Date of Notice	19 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Kelly Jnr	Edith Kirkpatrick
BDM Match (88%)	George Kelly	Edith Kirkpatrick
	💍 1916/2118
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Plasterer's Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	42	45
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	7314
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

169

21 December 1916

Charles Pearson
Violet Edith Daisy Short

Charles Pearson
Violet Edith Daisy Short
💍 1916/2095

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruit Grower
Domestic Servant

29
36

Wai-o-hika, Poverty Bay
Wai-o-hika

3 years
3 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

7315

21 December 1916

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	169
Date of Notice	21 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Pearson	Violet Edith Daisy Short
	💍 1916/2095
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruit Grower	Domestic Servant
Age	29	36
Dwelling Place	Wai-o-hika, Poverty Bay	Wai-o-hika
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	7315
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

170

27 December 1916

Reginald Menzies
Mary Brown

Reginald Menzies
May Brown
💍 1916/2096

Bachelor
Spinster

Farrier, Private, 21st Reinforcements
Waitress

32
21

Gisborne
Gisborne

7 years
2 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

7316

27 December 1916

Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	170
Date of Notice	27 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Menzies	Mary Brown
BDM Match (95%)	Reginald Menzies	May Brown
	💍 1916/2096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farrier, Private, 21st Reinforcements	Waitress
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	7316
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

171

28 December 1916

Charles Walter Smith
Mary Fernandez - Rangiuia

Charles Walter Smith
Mary Fernandez Rangiuia
💍 1916/2314

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Home Duties

21
18

Gisborne
Gisborne

21 years
18 years

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

7279

Charlotte Rangiuia (Mother)

28 December 1916

Rev. H. Packe, Church of England

No	171
Date of Notice	28 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Walter Smith	Mary Fernandez - Rangiuia
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Walter Smith	Mary Fernandez Rangiuia
	💍 1916/2314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Home Duties
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	21 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	7279
Consent	Charlotte Rangiuia (Mother)
Date of Certificate	28 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Packe, Church of England

172

28 December 1916

Frederick Charles Murdock
Florence Somervell

Frederick Charles Murdock
Florence Somervell
💍 1917/102

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Teacher

35
35

Gisborne
Gisborne

8 years
28 years

Residence of the Bride's Father, Kahutia Street, Gisborne

28 December 1916

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	172
Date of Notice	28 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Murdock	Florence Somervell
	💍 1917/102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Teacher
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Bride's Father, Kahutia Street, Gisborne
Folio	86
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 December 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).