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 1345

District of Wairoa Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar J. P. Crichton

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

2 January 1919

Robert Nicholson Duncan
Esther Florence Kilday

Robert Nicholson Duncan
Esther Florence Kilday
💍 1919/1494

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Domestic Duties

31
22

Wairoa
Wairoa

2 months
6 days

Presbyterian Church, Wairoa

1195

2 January 1919

Revd. William Raeburn, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Nicholson Duncan	Esther Florence Kilday
	💍 1919/1494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Domestic Duties
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	2 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Wairoa
Folio	1195
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Revd. William Raeburn, Presbyterian

9 January 1919

Douglas Robert Topham Hall
Vere Hall

Douglas Robert Topham Hall
Vera Hall
💍 1919/1495

Bachelor
Spinster

Draughtsman
Milliner

24
33

Wairoa
Wairoa

18 months
3 years

St Pauls Church, Wairoa

1196

9 January 1919

Revd. H. T. Rawnsley George Nelham Watson, Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	9 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Robert Topham Hall	Vere Hall
BDM Match (94%)	Douglas Robert Topham Hall	Vera Hall
	💍 1919/1495
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draughtsman	Milliner
Age	24	33
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	18 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Church, Wairoa
Folio	1196
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Revd. H. T. Rawnsley George Nelham Watson, Church of England

13 January 1919

Mohi Henare
Miriama Tawera

Mohi Henare
Miriama Tawera
💍 1919/1496

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

25
22

Nuhaka
Nuhaka

8 months
22 years

Registrar's Office, Wairoa

1197

13 January 1919

J. P. Crichton, Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	13 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mohi Henare	Miriama Tawera
	💍 1919/1496
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Nuhaka	Nuhaka
Length of Residence	8 months	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wairoa
Folio	1197
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1919
Officiating Minister	J. P. Crichton, Registrar

6 February 1919

Nuutu Tahu
Heni Eparaima

Mutu Tahu
Heu Eparaima
💍 1919/1497

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

29
21

Waikaremoana
Waikaremoana

29 years
21 years

Registrar's Office, Wairoa

1198

6 February 1919

J. P. Crichton, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	6 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nuutu Tahu	Heni Eparaima
BDM Match (82%)	Mutu Tahu	Heu Eparaima
	💍 1919/1497
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Waikaremoana	Waikaremoana
Length of Residence	29 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wairoa
Folio	1198
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1919
Officiating Minister	J. P. Crichton, Registrar

24 February 1919

Lionel Egbert Galbraith
Dora Isabel Gardner

Lionel Egbert Galbraith
Dora Isabel Gardiner
💍 1919/1498

Bachelor
Spinster

Tobacconist
Domestic duties

28
21

Wairoa
Wairoa

8 years
21 years

Presbyterian Manse, Wairoa

1199

24 February 1919

Revd. William Raeburn, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	24 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Egbert Galbraith	Dora Isabel Gardner
BDM Match (98%)	Lionel Egbert Galbraith	Dora Isabel Gardiner
	💍 1919/1498
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tobacconist	Domestic duties
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	8 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Wairoa
Folio	1199
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Revd. William Raeburn, Presbyterian

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).