Intentions to Marry, 1919 Herekino to Wairewa

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840482, 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.

1919b contains pages 501-1004, covering districts from Herekino to Wairewa

Page 781

District of Pukekohe Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar H. Waters

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 February 1919

Robert Ballance McLaren
Doris Mary Poole

Robert Ballance McLarin
Doris Mary Poole
💍 1919/1078

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

22
17

Waiau Pa
Waiau Pa

12 years
7 years

Registrar's Office Pukekohe

984

John Henry Poole Father

4 February 1919

H. Waters Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	4 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Ballance McLaren	Doris Mary Poole
BDM Match (98%)	Robert Ballance McLarin	Doris Mary Poole
	💍 1919/1078
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Waiau Pa	Waiau Pa
Length of Residence	12 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Pukekohe
Folio	984
Consent	John Henry Poole Father
Date of Certificate	4 February 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Waters Registrar

6 February 1919

Herbert Shotbolt
Queenie Marguerite Sears

Herbert Shotbolt
Queenie Margarite Sears
💍 1919/1055

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Milliner

32
21

Pukekohe
Pukekohe

7 years
3 years

Church of England Pukekohe

985

6 February 1919

Rev J. P. Cowie Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	6 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Shotbolt	Queenie Marguerite Sears
BDM Match (96%)	Herbert Shotbolt	Queenie Margarite Sears
	💍 1919/1055
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Milliner
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Pukekohe	Pukekohe
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Pukekohe
Folio	985
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. P. Cowie Church of England

18 February 1919

Albert Templeman
Mary Alice Medland

Albert Templeman
Mary Alice Medland
💍 1919/1056

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

36
32

Whangarata
Whangarata

7 months
3 weeks

Registrar's Office Pukekohe

986

18 February 1919

H. Waters Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	18 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Templeman	Mary Alice Medland
	💍 1919/1056
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Whangarata	Whangarata
Length of Residence	7 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Pukekohe
Folio	986
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Waters Registrar

4 March 1919

Thomas Leslie Svendsen
Elva Sophia Keyes

Thomas Leslie Svendsen
Elva Sophia Keyes
💍 1919/1057

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Laborer
Domestic duties

30
19

Matangi
Onewhero

2 months
17 years

The residence of Mr William Keyes Onewhero

987

William Keyes Father

4 March 1919

Rev. F. W. Rees Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	4 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Leslie Svendsen	Elva Sophia Keyes
	💍 1919/1057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Laborer	Domestic duties
Age	30	19
Dwelling Place	Matangi	Onewhero
Length of Residence	2 months	17 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Mr William Keyes Onewhero
Folio	987
Consent	William Keyes Father
Date of Certificate	4 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Rees Church of England

13 March 1919

Harry Rich
Hemotu Tamainu

Harry Rich
Hemotu Tamainu
💍 1919/1058

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic duties

45
21

Tua Rau
Tua Rau

18 years
5 months

The residence of Mr Edward Malete Tua Rau

988

13 March 1919

Rev Taniora Tokoroa Poichipi Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	13 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Rich	Hemotu Tamainu
	💍 1919/1058
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic duties
Age	45	21
Dwelling Place	Tua Rau	Tua Rau
Length of Residence	18 years	5 months
Marriage Place	The residence of Mr Edward Malete Tua Rau
Folio	988
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Taniora Tokoroa Poichipi Church of England

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).