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 276

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar Rowan

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

991

20 September 1916

Joseph John Brent
Queenie Alice Burkit

Joseph John Crewe
Queenie Alice Burkit
💍 1916/7522

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

45
25

Auckland
Auckland

Life
20 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

5166

20 September 1916

Registrar

No	991
Date of Notice	20 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph John Brent	Queenie Alice Burkit
BDM Match (91%)	Joseph John Crewe	Queenie Alice Burkit
	💍 1916/7522
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	45	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	Life	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	5166
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar

992

20 September 1916

Herbert John Smith
Ellen Stella Baker

Hubert John Smith
Ellen Stella Baker
💍 1916/1063

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

31
20

Feilding
Auckland

10 days
6 years

St Paul's Manse, Feilding

7662

4 days notice (Sec 29)

4 October 1916

Rev. I. Miller, Presbyterian

No	992
Date of Notice	20 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Smith	Ellen Stella Baker
BDM Match (94%)	Hubert John Smith	Ellen Stella Baker
	💍 1916/1063
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 days	6 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Manse, Feilding
Folio	7662
Consent	4 days notice (Sec 29)
Date of Certificate	4 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. I. Miller, Presbyterian

993

21 September 1916

Benjamin Della Coste
Josephine McGrath

Benjamin Dallas Cook
Josephine McGrath
💍 1916/1619

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
28

Auckland
Auckland

6 days
6 months

St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

6312

21 September 1916

Rev. John Taylor, Roman Catholic

No	993
Date of Notice	21 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Della Coste	Josephine McGrath
BDM Match (88%)	Benjamin Dallas Cook	Josephine McGrath
	💍 1916/1619
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	6312
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Taylor, Roman Catholic

994

22 September 1916

Leo Septimus Dark
Elizabeth Helen Robinson

Leo Septimus Park
Elizabeth Helen Robinson
💍 1916/7530

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller

33
26

Auckland
Auckland

10 days
15 years

St John's Church, Ponsonby

5173

22 September 1916

Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

No	994
Date of Notice	22 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Septimus Dark	Elizabeth Helen Robinson
BDM Match (97%)	Leo Septimus Park	Elizabeth Helen Robinson
	💍 1916/7530
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 days	15 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Ponsonby
Folio	5173
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

995

22 September 1916

Patrick Crawford
Isabel McCabe

Patrick Crawford
Isabel McCabe
💍 1916/7531

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

26
35

Auckland
Auckland

11 weeks
8 months

St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

5174

22 September 1916

Rev. W. J. Murphy, Roman Catholic

No	995
Date of Notice	22 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Crawford	Isabel McCabe
	💍 1916/7531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	26	35
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	11 weeks	8 months
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	5174
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Murphy, Roman Catholic

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).