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 100

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar W. R. Dyson

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

446

17 April 1916

Gordon Forbes Williams
Eva Jane Williams

Gordon Forbes Williams
Eva Janie Williams
💍 1916/6537

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

31
30

Auckland
Invercargill

4 years
Life

Gladstone Church, Invercargill

4045

17 April 1916

Rev. J. W. Williams, Anglican

No	446
Date of Notice	17 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Forbes Williams	Eva Jane Williams
BDM Match (97%)	Gordon Forbes Williams	Eva Janie Williams
	💍 1916/6537
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 years	Life
Marriage Place	Gladstone Church, Invercargill
Folio	4045
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Williams, Anglican

447

17 April 1916

John Kirkwood Barrett
Dora Mildred Keal

John Kirkwood Garrett
Dora Mildred Read
💍 1916/5549

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

34
30

Auckland
Auckland

25 years
7 days

Holy Trinity Church, Devonport

2942

17 April 1916

Rev. J. W. Young, Anglican

No	447
Date of Notice	17 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Kirkwood Barrett	Dora Mildred Keal
BDM Match (92%)	John Kirkwood Garrett	Dora Mildred Read
	💍 1916/5549
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	25 years	7 days
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Devonport
Folio	2942
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Young, Anglican

448

17 April 1916

Frederick William Moore
Hellenor Ethel Smith

Frederick William Moore
Hellenior Ethel Smith
💍 1916/5551

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

29
27

Auckland
Auckland

2 years
4 years

St Matthews Church, Auckland

2943

17 April 1916

Rev. J. G. S. Calder, Anglican

No	448
Date of Notice	17 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Moore	Hellenor Ethel Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick William Moore	Hellenior Ethel Smith
	💍 1916/5551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio	2943
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. S. Calder, Anglican

449

18 April 1916

Albert Neilson
Jessie Moncur

Albert Neilson
Jessie Moncur
💍 1916/5552

Bachelor
Spinster

Plate Layer

36
44

Auckland
Auckland

3 months
18 years

House of Mrs Moncur, Kohimarama Road, Remuera

2944

18 April 1916

Rev. G. B. Inglis, Presbyterian

No	449
Date of Notice	18 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Neilson	Jessie Moncur
	💍 1916/5552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plate Layer
Age	36	44
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 months	18 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Moncur, Kohimarama Road, Remuera
Folio	2944
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Inglis, Presbyterian

450

18 April 1916

John Charles O'Connor
Annie Ann Pigg

John Charles O'Connor
Mary Ann Grigg
💍 1916/5441

Widower
Spinster

Forwarding Clerk

36
28

Auckland
Auckland

12 years
5 years

Epiphany Church, Newton

2809

18 April 1916

Rev. W. H. Hughes, Anglican

No	450
Date of Notice	18 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Charles O'Connor	Annie Ann Pigg
BDM Match (75%)	John Charles O'Connor	Mary Ann Grigg
	💍 1916/5441
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Forwarding Clerk
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	12 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Epiphany Church, Newton
Folio	2809
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Hughes, Anglican

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).