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 462

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar R. H. Kirkwood

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

22 January 1919

William Robert West
Eliza Jane Bissett

William Robert West
Eliza Jane Bissett
💍 1919/1047

Widower (1889)
Spinster

Farmer
Housemaid

55
34

Hamilton
Hamilton

36 years
4 years

Registrar's Office Hamilton

928

22 January 1919

R. H. Kirkwood, Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	22 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Robert West	Eliza Jane Bissett
	💍 1919/1047
Condition	Widower (1889)	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Housemaid
Age	55	34
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	36 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hamilton
Folio	928
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. H. Kirkwood, Registrar

23 January 1919

Ernest Richard Worth
Evelyn Florence Leonard

Ernest Richard Worth
Evelyn Florence Leonard
💍 1919/1048

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

30
24

Hamilton
Hamilton

5 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church Hamilton

929

23 January 1919

R. Mackie, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	23 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Richard Worth	Evelyn Florence Leonard
	💍 1919/1048
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	5 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Hamilton
Folio	929
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Mackie, Presbyterian

25 January 1919

Arthur Cyril Fagan
Caroline Helen Douglas

Arthur Cyril Gagen
Caroline Helen Ashforth Douglas
💍 1919/1049

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School Teacher

23
21

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
3 months

Presbyterian Manse O'Neill St. Claudelands

930

25 January 1919

R. Mackie, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	25 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Cyril Fagan	Caroline Helen Douglas
BDM Match (80%)	Arthur Cyril Gagen	Caroline Helen Ashforth Douglas
	💍 1919/1049
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School Teacher
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse O'Neill St. Claudelands
Folio	930
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Mackie, Presbyterian

4 February 1919

John William Canty
Margaret Elizabeth Newsome

John William Canty
Margaret Elizabeth Newsome
💍 1919/1050

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

36
28

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 months
1 week

Roman Catholic Church Hamilton

931

4 February 1919

Dean Darby, Roman Catholic

No	9
Date of Notice	4 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Canty	Margaret Elizabeth Newsome
	💍 1919/1050
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Hamilton
Folio	931
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Dean Darby, Roman Catholic

6 February 1919

George Stephenson Boyes
Jane Fleming Stewart

George Stephenson Boyes
Jane Fleming Stewart
💍 1919/1933

Widower
Spinster

Land Agent
Law Clerk

36
28

Hamilton
Lepperton

15 years
7 days

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church New Plymouth

1089

see New Plymouth

6 February 1919

C. Blundell, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	6 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stephenson Boyes	Jane Fleming Stewart
	💍 1919/1933
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Land Agent	Law Clerk
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Lepperton
Length of Residence	15 years	7 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Presbyterian Church New Plymouth
Folio	1089
Consent	see New Plymouth
Date of Certificate	6 February 1919
Officiating Minister	C. Blundell, Presbyterian

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).