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 158

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1917 Registrar [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

731

16 August 1917

James Fletcher Hill
Flora Risk

Thomas Fletcher Hill
Flora Risk
💍 1917/4689

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

25
16

Auckland
Auckland

5 months
5 years

House of J. A. Lockie, Pierce Avenue, Dominion Rd, Auckland

4014

James Samual Risk, Father by adoption

16 August 1917

Rev. G. H. Laws, Methodist

No	731
Date of Notice	16 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Fletcher Hill	Flora Risk
BDM Match (90%)	Thomas Fletcher Hill	Flora Risk
	💍 1917/4689
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	25	16
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	5 months	5 years
Marriage Place	House of J. A. Lockie, Pierce Avenue, Dominion Rd, Auckland
Folio	4014
Consent	James Samual Risk, Father by adoption
Date of Certificate	16 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Laws, Methodist

732

16 August 1917

Roy Thomas Corkhill
Elsie Ella Mead

George Thomas Corkhill
Elsie Ella Mead
💍 1917/4690

Bachelor
Spinster

Electro Plater

27
32

Auckland
Auckland

10 years
12 years

Congregational Church, Edinburgh St, Newton

4015

16 August 1917

Rev. G. H. Orr, Congregational

No	732
Date of Notice	16 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Thomas Corkhill	Elsie Ella Mead
BDM Match (89%)	George Thomas Corkhill	Elsie Ella Mead
	💍 1917/4690
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electro Plater
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Edinburgh St, Newton
Folio	4015
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Orr, Congregational

733

17 August 1917

Peter Aloysius Brewin
Gladys Preciosa Sims

Peter Aloysius Brewin
Gladys Preciosa Sims
💍 1917/4691

Bachelor
Spinster

Furniture Worker

31
28

Auckland
Auckland

9 years
5 years

Congregational Church, View Rd, Mt Eden

4016

17 August 1917

Rev. A. B. Chappell, Methodist

No	733
Date of Notice	17 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Aloysius Brewin	Gladys Preciosa Sims
	💍 1917/4691
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Furniture Worker
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	9 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, View Rd, Mt Eden
Folio	4016
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Chappell, Methodist

734

17 August 1917

Percy Collins
Helen Margaret Dempsey

Percy Collins
Helen Margaret Dimpsey
💍 1917/4692

Bachelor
Spinster

Jockey

20
18

Auckland
Auckland

2 years
20 years

Registrars Office, Auckland

4017

Mary Collins, Mother; Sec 27 14 days Notice

31 August 1917

Registrar

No	734
Date of Notice	17 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Collins	Helen Margaret Dempsey
BDM Match (98%)	Percy Collins	Helen Margaret Dimpsey
	💍 1917/4692
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jockey
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Auckland
Folio	4017
Consent	Mary Collins, Mother; Sec 27 14 days Notice
Date of Certificate	31 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Registrar

735

17 August 1917

William Gilbert
Ellen Slack

William Gilbert
Ellen Black
💍 1917/4693

Bachelor
Divorced 17 August 1917

Bowling Green Keeper

39
36

Auckland
Auckland

7 years
4 years

Registrars Office, Auckland

4018

17 August 1917

Registrar

No	735
Date of Notice	17 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gilbert	Ellen Slack
BDM Match (95%)	William Gilbert	Ellen Black
	💍 1917/4693
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 17 August 1917
Profession	Bowling Green Keeper
Age	39	36
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Auckland
Folio	4018
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 August 1917
Officiating Minister	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).