Intentions to Marry, 1919 Whakatane to Mangaweka

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840483, 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.

1919c contains pages 1005-1502, covering districts from Whakatane to Mangaweka

Page 1021

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar F. Bird

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

7 July 1919

Henry Gibson Hoey
Elizabeth Jane Ritchie

Henry Gibson Hoey
Elizabeth Jane Ritchie
💍 1919/6140

Widower
Spinster

Orchardist
Cook

45
35

Whangarei
Whangarei

45 years
2 weeks

Registrar's Office Whangarei

5543

7 July 1919

F. Bird Registrar

No	26
Date of Notice	7 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gibson Hoey	Elizabeth Jane Ritchie
	💍 1919/6140
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Orchardist	Cook
Age	45	35
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	45 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Whangarei
Folio	5543
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1919
Officiating Minister	F. Bird Registrar

24 July 1919

Alexander Kehoe
Mary Isabella McArthur

Alexander Kehoe
Mary Isabelle McArthur
💍 1919/6141

Widower (10 November 1918)
Spinster

Labourer
Waitress

26
24

Whangarei
Whangarei

26 years
1 month

Registrar's Office Whangarei

5544

24 July 1919

F. Bird Registrar

No	27
Date of Notice	24 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Kehoe	Mary Isabella McArthur
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Kehoe	Mary Isabelle McArthur
	💍 1919/6141
Condition	Widower (10 November 1918)	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Waitress
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	26 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Whangarei
Folio	5544
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1919
Officiating Minister	F. Bird Registrar

25 July 1919

Reginald Warr Spencer
Eileen Jane Conway

Reginald Warr Spencer
Eileen Jane Conway
💍 1919/6143

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

22
24

Whangarei
Whangarei

3 days
7 years

Residence of W. Conway, 1st Avenue Whangarei

5545

25 July 1919

Rev. J. Zanna Roman Catholic Priest

No	28
Date of Notice	25 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Warr Spencer	Eileen Jane Conway
	💍 1919/6143
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. Conway, 1st Avenue Whangarei
Folio	5545
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Zanna Roman Catholic Priest

28 July 1919

Matthew Edgar
Lillian Hemus

Mathew Edgar
Lilian Hemus
💍 1919/6144

Bachelor
Divorced 29 May 1918

Confectioner
Domestic

26
33

Whangarei
Whangarei

7 months
33 years

Residence of H. E. Long, Vinery Lane Whangarei

5546

28 July 1919

Rev. G. W. Lochore Presbyterian Minister

No	29
Date of Notice	28 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Edgar	Lillian Hemus
BDM Match (92%)	Mathew Edgar	Lilian Hemus
	💍 1919/6144
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 29 May 1918
Profession	Confectioner	Domestic
Age	26	33
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	7 months	33 years
Marriage Place	Residence of H. E. Long, Vinery Lane Whangarei
Folio	5546
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Lochore Presbyterian Minister

4 August 1919

Frank Ham
Hazel Gertrude Smith

Frank Ham
Hazel Gertrude Smith
💍 1919/6145

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

33
28

Kaitara
Kaitara

7 years
28 years

Church of England Whangarei

5547

4 August 1919

Rev. C. C. Cruickshank Church of England Minister

No	30
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Ham	Hazel Gertrude Smith
	💍 1919/6145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Kaitara	Kaitara
Length of Residence	7 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Whangarei
Folio	5547
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. C. Cruickshank Church of England Minister

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).