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 1071

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar T. S. Daniel

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

13 October 1919

Harold Ackroyd
Elsie Annie Hurrell

Harold Ackroyd
Elsie Annie Hurrell
💍 1919/8792

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker
Domestic Duties

30
27

Hawera
Hawera

7 years
19 years

Methodist Church Hawera

8453

13 October 1919

Rev. A. Liversedge, Methodist

No	75
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Ackroyd	Elsie Annie Hurrell
	💍 1919/8792
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker	Domestic Duties
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	7 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Hawera
Folio	8453
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Liversedge, Methodist

13 October 1919

William James Marsh
Lydia Dawson

William James Marsh
Lydia Dawson
💍 1919/8793

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Servant

30
23

Mokoia
Hawera

16 years
20 years

Church of England Hawera

8454

13 October 1919

Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

No	76
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Marsh	Lydia Dawson
	💍 1919/8793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Servant
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Mokoia	Hawera
Length of Residence	16 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Hawera
Folio	8454
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

17 October 1919

Frederick Robert Leigh
Dorothy Maude Parry

Frederick Robert Leigh
Dorothy Maude Parry
💍 1919/8794

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

25
20

Hawera
Hawera

5 years
1 month

Residence of Mrs Climo, Wellington Street, Hawera

8455

Bertha Mary Climo, Mother

17 October 1919

Rev. A. Liversedge, Methodist

No	77
Date of Notice	17 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Robert Leigh	Dorothy Maude Parry
	💍 1919/8794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	5 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Climo, Wellington Street, Hawera
Folio	8455
Consent	Bertha Mary Climo, Mother
Date of Certificate	17 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Liversedge, Methodist

27 October 1919

Herbert Francis Newberry
Eileen Guillossen

Herbert Francis Newbery
Eileen Guillosson
💍 1919/8795

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

36
22

Hawera
Hawera

6 months
6 months

Church of England Hawera

8456

27 October 1919

Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

No	78
Date of Notice	27 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Francis Newberry	Eileen Guillossen
BDM Match (95%)	Herbert Francis Newbery	Eileen Guillosson
	💍 1919/8795
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Church of England Hawera
Folio	8456
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

28 October 1919

Thomas Turnbull
Bertha Isabel Gardner

Thomas Turnbull
Bertha Isabel Gardner
💍 1919/8796

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraph Lineman
Exchange Attendant

35
23

Hawera
Hawera

6 years
3 years 6 months

Church of England Hawera

8457

28 October 1919

Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

No	79
Date of Notice	28 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Turnbull	Bertha Isabel Gardner
	💍 1919/8796
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraph Lineman	Exchange Attendant
Age	35	23
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years 6 months
Marriage Place	Church of England Hawera
Folio	8457
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Bowen, Anglican

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).