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 814

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar F. Mitchell

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

21 February 1919

Frederick Wakefield
Margaret Sadie

Frederick Wakefield
Margaret Eadie
💍 1919/1079

Bachelor
Divorced

Soldier
Domestic

35
38

Rotorua
Rotorua

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

1001

21 February 1919

F. Mitchell, Deputy Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Wakefield	Margaret Sadie
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick Wakefield	Margaret Eadie
	💍 1919/1079
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	35	38
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	1001
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	F. Mitchell, Deputy Registrar

5 March 1919

Frederick Walter Norman Edwards
Florence Bagley

Frederick Walter Norman Edwards
Florence Edgley
💍 1919/1090

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Porter
Domestic

36
31

Rotorua
Rotorua

5 months
3 months

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

1002

5 March 1919

F. Mitchell, Deputy Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	5 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter Norman Edwards	Florence Bagley
BDM Match (93%)	Frederick Walter Norman Edwards	Florence Edgley
	💍 1919/1090
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Porter	Domestic
Age	36	31
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	1002
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1919
Officiating Minister	F. Mitchell, Deputy Registrar

10 March 1919

Mark Leonard Lowrie
Ivy Dobbs

Mark Leonard Lowrie
Ivy Dobbs
💍 1919/1096

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

25
27

Rotorua
Rotorua

11 months
2 months

Residence of D Hird, Pukauhia St, Rotorua

1003

10 March 1919

Rev D. Hird, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	10 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mark Leonard Lowrie	Ivy Dobbs
	💍 1919/1096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	11 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of D Hird, Pukauhia St, Rotorua
Folio	1003
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev D. Hird, Presbyterian

18 March 1919

Jason Batley
Janet Newbigging Boyd

Jason Catley
Janet Newbigging Boyd
💍 1919/1097

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

29
23

Rotorua
Rotorua

4 years
8 years

Residence of R. Dawson, Fairy Spring Farm, Rotorua

1004

18 March 1919

Rev D. Hird, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	18 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jason Batley	Janet Newbigging Boyd
BDM Match (96%)	Jason Catley	Janet Newbigging Boyd
	💍 1919/1097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of R. Dawson, Fairy Spring Farm, Rotorua
Folio	1004
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev D. Hird, Presbyterian

28 March 1919

James Himiona Thompson
Ada Mitchell

James Himiona Thompson
Ada Mitchell
💍 1919/1228

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

24
22

Rotorua
Rotorua

1 year
5 years

St Faiths Church of England Ohinemutu

1799

28 March 1919

Rev H. T. Hanby, Church of England

No	10
Date of Notice	28 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Himiona Thompson	Ada Mitchell
	💍 1919/1228
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	St Faiths Church of England Ohinemutu
Folio	1799
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev H. T. Hanby, 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).