Intentions to Marry, 1917 Albertland to Hamilton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840469, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1917 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.

1917a contains pages 1-356, covering districts from Albertland to Hamilton

Page 187

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar A. Wilson

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

866

1 October 1917

Ernest Richard Pountney
Dorothy Jean Bennett

Ernest Reginald Pountney
Dorothy Jean Bennett
💍 1917/392

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

27
24

Auckland
Auckland

1 week
life

Holy Trinity Church Devonport

5446

1 October 1917

Rev. F. W. Young, Anglican

No	866
Date of Notice	1 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Richard Pountney	Dorothy Jean Bennett
BDM Match (90%)	Ernest Reginald Pountney	Dorothy Jean Bennett
	💍 1917/392
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 week	life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Devonport
Folio	5446
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Young, Anglican

867

2 October 1917

Ernest-Albert Tardieu
Edith Hargreaves Thompson

Ernest Albert Tardieu
Edith Hargreaves Thompson
💍 1917/393

Bachelor
Divorced (decree absolute 27 Sept 1907)

Station Manager

39
39

Auckland
Auckland

6 weeks
4 days

Registrar's Office Auckland

5447

2 October 1917

Registrar

No	867
Date of Notice	2 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest-Albert Tardieu	Edith Hargreaves Thompson
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Albert Tardieu	Edith Hargreaves Thompson
	💍 1917/393
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (decree absolute 27 Sept 1907)
Profession	Station Manager
Age	39	39
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 weeks	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Auckland
Folio	5447
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Registrar

868

2 October 1917

Thomas Edgar Walker
Olive Cecilia Pike

Thomas Edgar Walker
Olive Cecilia Pike
💍 1917/394

Bachelor
Spinster

Lieutenant N.Z.E.F.

26
25

Auckland
Auckland

1 week
25 years

St Mark's Church Remuera

5448

2 October 1917

Rev. W. Beatty, Anglican

No	868
Date of Notice	2 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Edgar Walker	Olive Cecilia Pike
	💍 1917/394
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lieutenant N.Z.E.F.
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 week	25 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Remuera
Folio	5448
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Beatty, Anglican

869

2 October 1917

Nicholas Bramwell
Elizabeth Elsie Woulfe

Nicholas Greenwell
Elizabeth Elsie Woulfe
💍 1917/395

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Mechanical Engineer

26
22

Auckland
Auckland

28 days
5 days

St Matthew's Church Auckland

5449

2 October 1917

Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

No	869
Date of Notice	2 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nicholas Bramwell	Elizabeth Elsie Woulfe
BDM Match (89%)	Nicholas Greenwell	Elizabeth Elsie Woulfe
	💍 1917/395
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Mechanical Engineer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	28 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Auckland
Folio	5449
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

870

2 October 1917

Thomas Fenwick
Ellen Mary Finnane (Finnane)

Thomas Kenrick
Ellen Mary Finnane
💍 1917/5774

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

33
28

Auckland
Auckland

2 days
24 years

Church of the Sacred Heart Ponsonby

5450

2 October 1917

Rev. J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

No	870
Date of Notice	2 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Fenwick	Ellen Mary Finnane (Finnane)
BDM Match (75%)	Thomas Kenrick	Ellen Mary Finnane
	💍 1917/5774
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 days	24 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart Ponsonby
Folio	5450
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

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).