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 240

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar [illegible]

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

1161

17 November 1916

Ronald Keith Wylie
Edith Philippa Brock

Ronald Keith Wylie
Edith Philippa Corch
💍 1916/860

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

23
35

Auckland
Auckland

2 3/4 years
4 years

St Andrew's Church Epsom

6779

17 November 1916

Rev. J. Wilkinson, Anglican

No	1161
Date of Notice	17 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald Keith Wylie	Edith Philippa Brock
BDM Match (90%)	Ronald Keith Wylie	Edith Philippa Corch
	💍 1916/860
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	23	35
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 3/4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church Epsom
Folio	6779
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilkinson, Anglican

1162

18 November 1916

William Brook Smith
Louisa Walker

William Brook Smith
Louisa Walters
💍 1916/861

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchants Assistant

31
29

Auckland
Auckland

10 years
15 years

St Alban's Church, Dominion Road, Mount Eden

6780

18 November 1916

Rev. A. Richards, Anglican

No	1162
Date of Notice	18 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brook Smith	Louisa Walker
BDM Match (93%)	William Brook Smith	Louisa Walters
	💍 1916/861
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchants Assistant
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St Alban's Church, Dominion Road, Mount Eden
Folio	6780
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Richards, Anglican

1163

20 November 1916

Arthur Ingram Bentley
Adeline Gertrude Reed

Arthur Ingham Bentley
Adeline Gertrude Reed
💍 1916/862

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

27
21

Auckland
Auckland

Life
Life

Church of the Sacred Heart Ponsonby

6781

20 November 1916

Rev. J. V. Carran, Roman Catholic

No	1163
Date of Notice	20 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Ingram Bentley	Adeline Gertrude Reed
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Ingham Bentley	Adeline Gertrude Reed
	💍 1916/862
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart Ponsonby
Folio	6781
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. V. Carran, Roman Catholic

1164

20 November 1916

Charles Lawson
Ivy Reed Cooke

Charles Sansom
Ivy Reed Cooke
💍 1916/863

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

38
31

Auckland
Auckland

8 years
31 years

Residence of Mr. John Reed, Blair Road, Northcote

6782

20 November 1916

Rev. P. J. Roby, Presbyterian

No	1164
Date of Notice	20 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Lawson	Ivy Reed Cooke
BDM Match (89%)	Charles Sansom	Ivy Reed Cooke
	💍 1916/863
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	38	31
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	8 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. John Reed, Blair Road, Northcote
Folio	6782
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Roby, Presbyterian

1165

20 November 1916

Michael Thomas Melican
Florence McPartland

Michael Thomas Melican
Florence McCarthy
💍 1916/864

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Shunter

37
35

Auckland
Auckland

5 years
33 years

St. Patrick's Cathedral Auckland

6783

20 November 1916

Rev. J. O'Malley, Roman Catholic

No	1165
Date of Notice	20 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Thomas Melican	Florence McPartland
BDM Match (87%)	Michael Thomas Melican	Florence McCarthy
	💍 1916/864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter
Age	37	35
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	33 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Cathedral Auckland
Folio	6783
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. O'Malley, 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).