Intentions to Marry, 1917 Helensville to Whangaroa

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840470, 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.

1917b contains pages 357-868, covering districts from Helensville to Whangaroa

Page 751

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar N. S. N. Wood

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

4 January 1917

Hugh Philip Fanelly
Bertha Eveline Prentis

Hugh Philip Farrelly
Bertha Eveline Prenter
💍 1917/1798

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman
Housemaid

40
25

Thames
Thames

40 years
8 months

In the Church of England Mackay Street Thames

906

4 January 1917

A. J. Beck Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Philip Fanelly	Bertha Eveline Prentis
BDM Match (90%)	Hugh Philip Farrelly	Bertha Eveline Prenter
	💍 1917/1798
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman	Housemaid
Age	40	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	40 years	8 months
Marriage Place	In the Church of England Mackay Street Thames
Folio	906
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1917
Officiating Minister	A. J. Beck Church of England

19 January 1917

Thomas Bray Penno
Elsie Mabel Saunders

Thomas Bray Penno
Elsie Mabel Saunders
💍 1917/1797

Bachelor
Spinster

Returned Soldier
Domestic duties

22
17

Thames
Thames

20 years
10 years

Church of England Mackay Street Thames

905

Sarah Ann Saunders (Mother)

19 January 1917

A. J. Beck Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	19 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Bray Penno	Elsie Mabel Saunders
	💍 1917/1797
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Returned Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	20 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Mackay Street Thames
Folio	905
Consent	Sarah Ann Saunders (Mother)
Date of Certificate	19 January 1917
Officiating Minister	A. J. Beck Church of England

13 February 1917

Francis Hartley McCall
Muriel Stella Jenkin

Francis Hartley McCall
Muriel Stella Jenkin
💍 1917/1796

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
25

Thames
Thames

3 days
25 years

In the house of Mrs Jenkin Willoughby Street Thames

904

13 February 1917

W. Wallace Baptist

No	3
Date of Notice	13 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Hartley McCall	Muriel Stella Jenkin
	💍 1917/1796
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs Jenkin Willoughby Street Thames
Folio	904
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Wallace Baptist

16 February 1917

Campbell John Leonard Stanton
Florence Edmonds

Campbell John Leonard Stanton
Florence Edmonds
💍 1917/1795

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

21
21

Thames
Thames

1 day
3 weeks

Registrar's Office Mary Street Thames

903

16 February 1917

W. H. Potts Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	16 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Campbell John Leonard Stanton	Florence Edmonds
	💍 1917/1795
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	1 day	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Mary Street Thames
Folio	903
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W. H. Potts Registrar

17 February 1917

William Arthur Addison
Alice Maud Mettam

William Arthur Addison
Alice Maud Mettam
💍 1917/1788

Widower 12th Sept 1916
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic duties

32
34

Thames
Thames

32 years
5 months

In the Registrar's Office Mary St Thames

902

17 February 1917

W. H. Potts Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	17 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Addison	Alice Maud Mettam
	💍 1917/1788
Condition	Widower 12th Sept 1916	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	32	34
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	32 years	5 months
Marriage Place	In the Registrar's Office Mary St Thames
Folio	902
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W. H. Potts 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).