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 042

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. G. Palethorpe

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

166

7 February 1916

Martin Bernard Heffernan
Mary Matilda McLeod

Martin Bernard Hefferman
May Matilda McLeod
💍 1916/8933

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

32
22

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
3 days

St Andrews Church, Auckland

1763

7 February 1916

Rev. A. Murray, Presbyterian

No	166
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Bernard Heffernan	Mary Matilda McLeod
BDM Match (95%)	Martin Bernard Hefferman	May Matilda McLeod
	💍 1916/8933
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Auckland
Folio	1763
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Murray, Presbyterian

167

7 February 1916

Percy Henry Davidson
Edith Anne Boyle

George Henry Davidson
Edith Annie Boyle
💍 1916/8934

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

34
38

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
32 days

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Auckland

1764

7 February 1916

Rev. A. V. Venable, Anglican

No	167
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Henry Davidson	Edith Anne Boyle
BDM Match (88%)	George Henry Davidson	Edith Annie Boyle
	💍 1916/8934
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	34	38
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	32 days
Marriage Place	Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Auckland
Folio	1764
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. V. Venable, Anglican

168

7 February 1916

Healey Stevans
Gladys Florence Hyde

Hedley Stevans
Gladys Florence Hyde
💍 1916/370

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

24
21

Auckland
Auckland

6 weeks
3 months

Registrars Office, Auckland

911

7 February 1916

Registrar

No	168
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Healey Stevans	Gladys Florence Hyde
BDM Match (96%)	Hedley Stevans	Gladys Florence Hyde
	💍 1916/370
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 weeks	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Auckland
Folio	911
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar

169

7 February 1916

John Patrick Owens
Winifred Anne Boggs

John Patrick Furey
Winifred Annie Boggs
💍 1916/8935

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

34
29

Auckland
Auckland

10 days
7 days

St Patricks Cathedral, Auckland

1765

7 February 1916

Rt. Rev. Dr. J. Brodie, Roman Catholic

No	169
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Patrick Owens	Winifred Anne Boggs
BDM Match (84%)	John Patrick Furey	Winifred Annie Boggs
	💍 1916/8935
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 days	7 days
Marriage Place	St Patricks Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	1765
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rt. Rev. Dr. J. Brodie, Roman Catholic

170

8 February 1916

Albert George Harper
Kathleen Matilda Milligan

Albert George Harper
Kathleen Matilda Milligan
💍 1916/371

Bachelor
Spinster

Cutter

28
26

Auckland
Auckland

Life
7 days

Registrars Office, Auckland

912

8 February 1916

Registrar

No	170
Date of Notice	8 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Harper	Kathleen Matilda Milligan
	💍 1916/371
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cutter
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	Life	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Auckland
Folio	912
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).