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 693

District of Pukekohe Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar William Coote

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

08 January 1916

Walter Snelling Baird
Olive Dalton Berriman

Walter Snelling Baird
Olive Dalton Berriman
💍 1916/3314

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

28
21

Pukekohe
Pukekohe

3 years
9 years

Anglican Church, Pukekohe

182

08 January 1916

J. P. Cowie

No	1
Date of Notice	08 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Snelling Baird	Olive Dalton Berriman
	💍 1916/3314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Pukekohe	Pukekohe
Length of Residence	3 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Pukekohe
Folio	182
Consent
Date of Certificate	08 January 1916
Officiating Minister	J. P. Cowie

01 February 1916

Percy John Sawyer
Flossie Thomas

Percy John Sawyer
Flossie Thomas
💍 1916/3312

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable
Domestic duties

29
20

Bombay
Bombay

3 days
5 years

Church of England, Bombay

181

Henry Thomas, Father

01 February 1916

L. Foulkes

No	2
Date of Notice	01 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy John Sawyer	Flossie Thomas
	💍 1916/3312
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable	Domestic duties
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Bombay	Bombay
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Bombay
Folio	181
Consent	Henry Thomas, Father
Date of Certificate	01 February 1916
Officiating Minister	L. Foulkes

16 February 1916

William Arthur Willis
Jessie Edith Bilkey

William Arthur Willis
Jessie Edith Bilkey
💍 1916/3309

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

37
26

Pukekohe
Pukekohe

5 years
3 days

St Andrews Church, Pukekohe

178

16 February 1916

F. B. Dobson

No	3
Date of Notice	16 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Willis	Jessie Edith Bilkey
	💍 1916/3309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	37	26
Dwelling Place	Pukekohe	Pukekohe
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Pukekohe
Folio	178
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1916
Officiating Minister	F. B. Dobson

24 February 1916

Edwin Leonard Bilkey
Eva Kathleen Leighton

Edwin Leonard Bilkey
Eva Kathleen Leighton
💍 1916/3307

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
19

Buckland
Buckland

26 years
10 years

Residence of W Leighton, Buckland

176

W. H. Leighton, Father

24 February 1916

G. Frost

No	4
Date of Notice	24 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Leonard Bilkey	Eva Kathleen Leighton
	💍 1916/3307
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Buckland	Buckland
Length of Residence	26 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W Leighton, Buckland
Folio	176
Consent	W. H. Leighton, Father
Date of Certificate	24 February 1916
Officiating Minister	G. Frost

20 March 1916

Henry Cuthbert Leaf Millward
Emily Honorah Sleath

Henry Curbert Leaf Millward
Emily Honorah Sleath
💍 1916/3308

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Housekeeper

32 years
24

Tuakau
Tuakau

16 years
2 months

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Pukekohe

177

20 March 1916

W. B. Grundy, Deputy Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	20 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Cuthbert Leaf Millward	Emily Honorah Sleath
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Curbert Leaf Millward	Emily Honorah Sleath
	💍 1916/3308
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housekeeper
Age	32 years	24
Dwelling Place	Tuakau	Tuakau
Length of Residence	16 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Pukekohe
Folio	177
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1916
Officiating Minister	W. B. Grundy, Deputy Registrar

22 March 1916

George Hayward
Caroline Rebecca Cook

George Hayward
Caroline Rebecca Cook
💍 1916/12258

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

37
28

Pukekohe
Pukekohe

3 days
3 days

Residence of Rev S Nixon, Pukekohe

3524

22 March 1916

S. Nixon

No	6
Date of Notice	22 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Hayward	Caroline Rebecca Cook
	💍 1916/12258
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Pukekohe	Pukekohe
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev S Nixon, Pukekohe
Folio	3524
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1916
Officiating Minister	S. Nixon

28 March 1916

John Dale
Jeanie Violet Watson

John Dale
Jeanie Violet Watson
💍 1916/6140

Bachelor
Spinster

Loco Fireman
Domestic duties

22
21

Pukekohe
Mauku

Life
20 years

Residence of Mr T Watson, Mauku

3525

28 March 1916

S. Nixon

No	7
Date of Notice	28 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dale	Jeanie Violet Watson
	💍 1916/6140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Loco Fireman	Domestic duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Pukekohe	Mauku
Length of Residence	Life	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr T Watson, Mauku
Folio	3525
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1916
Officiating Minister	S. Nixon

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).