Intentions to Marry, 1916 Helensville to Whangaroa

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840464, 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.

1916b contains pages 419-930, covering districts from Helensville to Whangaroa

Page 914

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar B. Pica

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

6/16

17 January 1916

Stanley Nelson Going
Isabella Ann White

Stanley Nelson Going
Isabella Ann White
💍 1916/3353

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic

28
27

Onerahi
Whangarei

28 years
8 years

Dwelling of D. White Whangarei

284

17 January 1916

Rev Somerville Presbyterian Minister

No	6/16
Date of Notice	17 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Nelson Going	Isabella Ann White
	💍 1916/3353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Onerahi	Whangarei
Length of Residence	28 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of D. White Whangarei
Folio	284
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev Somerville Presbyterian Minister

7/16

18 January 1916

Isaac Barron
Florence Pirrit

Isaac Barron
Florence Pirrit
💍 1916/3284

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Cook

24
24

Kamo
Kamo

12 months
12 months

Registrar's Office Whangarei

227

18 January 1916

P. J. Norwood Deputy Registrar

No	7/16
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Barron	Florence Pirrit
	💍 1916/3284
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Cook
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Kamo	Kamo
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Whangarei
Folio	227
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	P. J. Norwood Deputy Registrar

8/16

25 January 1916

Herbert Hannam
Ethel Mary Coulton

Herbert Hannam
Ethel Mary Coulton
💍 1916/3350

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Proprietor
Dressmaker

22
20

Whangarei
Whangarei

22 years
20 years

Church of England Whangarei

263

Annie Martha Coulton Mother

25 January 1916

H. A. Johnson Church of England Minister

No	8/16
Date of Notice	25 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Hannam	Ethel Mary Coulton
	💍 1916/3350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Proprietor	Dressmaker
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	22 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Whangarei
Folio	263
Consent	Annie Martha Coulton Mother
Date of Certificate	25 January 1916
Officiating Minister	H. A. Johnson Church of England Minister

9/16

3 February 1916

Thomas Grice Palmer
Miriam Eileen Furness

Thomas Grice Palmer
Miriam Eileen Furness
💍 1916/3351

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer
Domestic

26
22

Whangarei
Whangarei

26 years
3 years

Methodist Church Whangarei

282

3 February 1916

Rev Daniels Methodist Minister

No	9/16
Date of Notice	3 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Grice Palmer	Miriam Eileen Furness
	💍 1916/3351
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer	Domestic
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	26 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Whangarei
Folio	282
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev Daniels Methodist Minister

10/16

7 February 1916

Alexander Kehoe
Lilian Maude Andrews

Alexander Kehoe
Lilian Maude Andrews
💍 1916/3285

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

22
21

Whangarei
Whangarei

22 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Whangarei

228

7 February 1916

F. Bird Registrar

No	10/16
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Kehoe	Lilian Maude Andrews
	💍 1916/3285
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	22 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Whangarei
Folio	228
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	F. Bird 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).