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 777

District of Te Aroha Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. Hollywood

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

18 January 1916

Leo Shaldrick
Eileen Patricia McSheffry

Leo Shaldrick
Eileen Patricia McSheffrey
💍 1916/1

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic duties

27
23

Onehunga
Waihou

27 years
17 years

Roman Catholic Church Te Aroha

2825

18 January 1916

Rev. James McGuinness Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Shaldrick	Eileen Patricia McSheffry
BDM Match (98%)	Leo Shaldrick	Eileen Patricia McSheffrey
	💍 1916/1
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Waihou
Length of Residence	27 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Te Aroha
Folio	2825
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. James McGuinness Roman Catholic

1 February 1916

Charles Newstead McFlinn
Catherine Wallace

Charles Newstead McFlinn
Catherine Wallace
💍 1916/3277

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

27
24

Green Lane Auckland
Te Aroha

3 months
6 weeks

Presbyterian Church Te Aroha

212

1 February 1916

Edmund Harvey Taylor Church of Christ

No	2
Date of Notice	1 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Newstead McFlinn	Catherine Wallace
	💍 1916/3277
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Green Lane Auckland	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	3 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Te Aroha
Folio	212
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Edmund Harvey Taylor Church of Christ

1 February 1916

John Patrick Kirby
Caroline Emily May Johnson

John Patrick Kirby
Caroline Emily May Johnson
💍 1916/5648

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Draper

31
31

Te Aroha
Te Aroha

8 years
31 years

Roman Catholic church Te Aroha

2826

1 February 1916

James McGuinness Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	1 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Patrick Kirby	Caroline Emily May Johnson
	💍 1916/5648
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Draper
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Te Aroha	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	8 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church Te Aroha
Folio	2826
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1916
Officiating Minister	James McGuinness Roman Catholic

14 February 1916

Leonard James Sykes
Gladys Mary Lipsey

Leonard James Sykes
Gwladys Mary Lipsey
💍 1916/3269

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk Railway Department
Clerk newspaper office

22
21

Ellerslie
Te Aroha

12 months
21 years

Private residence F. W. Lipsey Te Aroha

211

14 February 1916

G. Blundell Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard James Sykes	Gladys Mary Lipsey
BDM Match (97%)	Leonard James Sykes	Gwladys Mary Lipsey
	💍 1916/3269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk Railway Department	Clerk newspaper office
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Ellerslie	Te Aroha
Length of Residence	12 months	21 years
Marriage Place	Private residence F. W. Lipsey Te Aroha
Folio	211
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1916
Officiating Minister	G. Blundell Presbyterian

22 February 1916

Victor Richard Stanley Scott
Ruby Wynne Cooper

Victor Richard Stanley Scott
Ruby Wynne Cooper
💍 1916/3268

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

28
23

Featherston
Waitoa

13 years
5 years

Church of England Te Aroha

210

22 February 1916

Rev. W. H. Edgell Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	22 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Richard Stanley Scott	Ruby Wynne Cooper
	💍 1916/3268
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Waitoa
Length of Residence	13 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Te Aroha
Folio	210
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Edgell Church of England

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).