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 1159

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar S. H. James

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

8 April 1919

Gordon Eric Chisnall
Eileen Myrtle Scown

Gordon Eric Chisnall
Eileen Myrtle Scown
💍 1919/3324

Bachelor
Spinster

cheese factory assistant
Domestic help

21
23

Stratford
Stratford

6 months
2 weeks

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

3233

8 April 1919

S. H. James, Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	8 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Eric Chisnall	Eileen Myrtle Scown
	💍 1919/3324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	cheese factory assistant	Domestic help
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	6 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	3233
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1919
Officiating Minister	S. H. James, Registrar

17 April 1919

Neil Macauley Coleman
Ida Cameron

Neil Meanley Coleman
Ida Cameron
💍 1919/3325

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School teacher

27
27

Ngaere
Stratford

27 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Stratford

3234

17 April 1919

J. D. Madill, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neil Macauley Coleman	Ida Cameron
BDM Match (93%)	Neil Meanley Coleman	Ida Cameron
	💍 1919/3325
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School teacher
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Ngaere	Stratford
Length of Residence	27 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Stratford
Folio	3234
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	J. D. Madill, Presbyterian

5 May 1919

Llewellyn Claude Betts
Helene Blanche Bredow

Llewellyn Claude Betts
Helene Blanche Bredow
💍 1919/3326

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

25
25

Stratford
Douglas

3 days
12 years

Residence of F. W. R. Bredow, Ohura road, Douglas

3235

5 May 1919

J. D. Madill, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	5 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Llewellyn Claude Betts	Helene Blanche Bredow
	💍 1919/3326
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Douglas
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of F. W. R. Bredow, Ohura road, Douglas
Folio	3235
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1919
Officiating Minister	J. D. Madill, Presbyterian

14 May 1919

Newton Roy Hamblyn
Rosaline Margaret Moseley

Newton Roy Hamblyn
Rosaline Margaret Mosaley
💍 1919/3327

Bachelor
Widow 15-8-16

Farm hand

22
28

Midhirst
Midhirst

20 years
7 months

Roman Catholic Presbytery, Stratford

3236

14 May 1919

F. G. Maples, Roman Catholic

No	10
Date of Notice	14 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Newton Roy Hamblyn	Rosaline Margaret Moseley
BDM Match (98%)	Newton Roy Hamblyn	Rosaline Margaret Mosaley
	💍 1919/3327
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 15-8-16
Profession	Farm hand
Age	22	28
Dwelling Place	Midhirst	Midhirst
Length of Residence	20 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Stratford
Folio	3236
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1919
Officiating Minister	F. G. Maples, Roman Catholic

19 May 1919

Francis William Dombroski
Dorothy Kathleen Dodunski

Francis William Dombroski
Kathleen Dorothy Dodunski
💍 1919/3328

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
18

Midhirst
Midhirst

8 days
18 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

3237

Joseph Dodunski, father.

19 May 1919

F. G. Maples, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	19 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis William Dombroski	Dorothy Kathleen Dodunski
BDM Match (68%)	Francis William Dombroski	Kathleen Dorothy Dodunski
	💍 1919/3328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	18
Dwelling Place	Midhirst	Midhirst
Length of Residence	8 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	3237
Consent	Joseph Dodunski, father.
Date of Certificate	19 May 1919
Officiating Minister	F. G. Maples, Roman Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).