Intentions to Marry, 1919 Albertland to Helensville

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840481, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1919 is bound in seven volumes (a to g) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1919a contains pages 1-500, covering districts from Albertland to Helensville

Page 031

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar A. W. Pybus

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

111

3 February 1919

Arthur Henry Thomas
Jessie Maud Sanders

Arthur Henry Thomas
Jessie Maud Sanders
💍 1919/561

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

30
24

Auckland
Auckland

30 years
4 years

St David's Church, Auckland

410

3 February 1919

Rev A. W. Kinmont, Presbyterian

No	111
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Henry Thomas	Jessie Maud Sanders
	💍 1919/561
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	30 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St David's Church, Auckland
Folio	410
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev A. W. Kinmont, Presbyterian

112

3 February 1919

Edgar Henry Durrad
Sarah Harrod

Edgar Henry Durrad
Sarah Harrod
💍 1919/562

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

40
32

Auckland
Auckland

1 year
10 years

St Matthew's Church, Auckland

411

3 February 1919

Rev J. A. Calder, Anglican

No	112
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Henry Durrad	Sarah Harrod
	💍 1919/562
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	40	32
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	10 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Auckland
Folio	411
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. A. Calder, Anglican

113

3 February 1919

Dudley Yates Fosbroke
Margaret Purkis

Dudley Yate Fosbroke
Margaret Parkes
💍 1919/563

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
39

Helensville
Auckland

33 years
30 years

St George's Church, Epsom

412

3 February 1919

Rev W. Beatty, Anglican

No	113
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dudley Yates Fosbroke	Margaret Purkis
BDM Match (91%)	Dudley Yate Fosbroke	Margaret Parkes
	💍 1919/563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	39
Dwelling Place	Helensville	Auckland
Length of Residence	33 years	30 years
Marriage Place	St George's Church, Epsom
Folio	412
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Beatty, Anglican

114

3 February 1919

Harry Langton
Florence Elizabeth Holmes

Harry Langton
Florence Elizabeth Holmes
💍 1919/564

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent

31
23

Onehunga
Auckland

1 year
4 years

Presbyterian Church, Epsom

413

3 February 1919

Rev W. McDonald, Presbyterian

No	114
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Langton	Florence Elizabeth Holmes
	💍 1919/564
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Epsom
Folio	413
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. McDonald, Presbyterian

115

3 February 1919

Richard Hewitson
Olive Ellen Mary Gilliland

Richard Hewiston
Olive Ellen Mary Gilliland
💍 1919/565

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

22
22

Auckland
Auckland

22 years
22 years

St Matthew's Church, Auckland

414

3 February 1919

Rev W. E. Gillam, Anglican

No	115
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Hewitson	Olive Ellen Mary Gilliland
BDM Match (94%)	Richard Hewiston	Olive Ellen Mary Gilliland
	💍 1919/565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Auckland
Folio	414
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. E. Gillam, Anglican

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).