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 240

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar A. W. [illegible]

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

1131

31 December 1917

Harold John Bullen
Madge Dorothy Rowallen Brown

Harold John Cullen
Madge Dorothy Rowallen Brown
💍 1917/5927

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

24
23

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
Life

Registrar's Office Auckland

5087

31 December 1917

Registrar

No	1131
Date of Notice	31 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold John Bullen	Madge Dorothy Rowallen Brown
BDM Match (97%)	Harold John Cullen	Madge Dorothy Rowallen Brown
	💍 1917/5927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Auckland
Folio	5087
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Registrar

1132

31 December 1917

Roy Francis Johnson
Mary Josephine Theresa Pohlen

George Francis Johnson
Mary Josephine Theresa Pohlen
💍 1918/756

Bachelor
Spinster

Staff Sergeant Instructor

23
24

Auckland
Auckland

3 days
10 years

Roman Catholic Church Ellerslie

31 December 1917

Rev. J. Dunphy, Roman Catholic

No	1132
Date of Notice	31 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Francis Johnson	Mary Josephine Theresa Pohlen
BDM Match (89%)	George Francis Johnson	Mary Josephine Theresa Pohlen
	💍 1918/756
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Staff Sergeant Instructor
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Ellerslie
Folio	44
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dunphy, Roman Catholic

1133

31 December 1917

Henry Kennedy Marr
Mary Wiltshire

Henry Kennedy
May Wiltshire
💍 1918/754

Bachelor
Spinster

Asphalter

30
28

Auckland
Auckland

5 days
20 years

St Mary's Cathedral Parnell

31 December 1917

Rev. R. J. Stanton, Anglican

No	1133
Date of Notice	31 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Kennedy Marr	Mary Wiltshire
BDM Match (83%)	Henry Kennedy	May Wiltshire
	💍 1918/754
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Asphalter
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Cathedral Parnell
Folio	42
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Stanton, Anglican

1134

31 December 1917

Hugh Gordon Derrett
Clarissa Ann Mardell

Hugh Gordon Perrett
Clarissa Sim Mardell
💍 1918/755

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

21
18

Auckland
Auckland

2 weeks
10 years

St Matthew's Church Auckland

Emily Kate Mardell Mother

31 December 1917

Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

No	1134
Date of Notice	31 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Gordon Derrett	Clarissa Ann Mardell
BDM Match (90%)	Hugh Gordon Perrett	Clarissa Sim Mardell
	💍 1918/755
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 weeks	10 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Auckland
Folio	43
Consent	Emily Kate Mardell Mother
Date of Certificate	31 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Anglican

1135

31 December 1917

William Phillips Stapleton Cole
Mary Kernott

William Phillip Stapleton Cole
Mary Kernott
💍 1917/5928

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

21
22

Auckland
Auckland

5 weeks
6 years

Residence of Rev. H. Holbrook, Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby

5688

31 December 1917

Rev. H. Holbrook, Roman Catholic

No	1135
Date of Notice	31 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Phillips Stapleton Cole	Mary Kernott
BDM Match (98%)	William Phillip Stapleton Cole	Mary Kernott
	💍 1917/5928
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 weeks	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. H. Holbrook, Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby
Folio	5688
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Holbrook, Roman Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).