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 1365

District of Woodville Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar J. D. O'Gorman

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

02 April 1919

Stanley Roy Johnson
Mabel Florence Sykes

Stanley Roy Johnson
Mabel Florence Sykes
💍 1919/1895

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor driver
Domestic duties

20
19

Masterton
Woodville

15 years
15 years

The Registrar's office Woodville

1652

Rachel Sykes mother

02 April 1919

J. D. O'Gorman Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	02 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Roy Johnson	Mabel Florence Sykes
	💍 1919/1895
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor driver	Domestic duties
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Woodville
Length of Residence	15 years	15 years
Marriage Place	The Registrar's office Woodville
Folio	1652
Consent	Rachel Sykes mother
Date of Certificate	02 April 1919
Officiating Minister	J. D. O'Gorman Registrar

16 April 1919

James Armstrong Turnbull
Lizzie Euphemia Gardner

James Armstrong Turnbull
Lizzie Euphemia Gardner
💍 1919/3429

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker
Milliner

35
29

Martinborough
Woodville

6 months
7 days

Presbyterian Church Woodville

3367

16 April 1919

R Gardner

No	5
Date of Notice	16 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Armstrong Turnbull	Lizzie Euphemia Gardner
	💍 1919/3429
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Milliner
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Martinborough	Woodville
Length of Residence	6 months	7 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Woodville
Folio	3367
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R Gardner

19 May 1919

Thomas Henry Williams
Ethel Frances Hartstone

Thomas Henry Williams
Ethel Frances Hartstone
💍 1919/3430

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
22

Woodville
Woodville

3 years
22 years

Church of England Woodville

3368

19 May 1919

K E maclean

No	6
Date of Notice	19 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Williams	Ethel Frances Hartstone
	💍 1919/3430
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Woodville
Folio	3368
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 May 1919
Officiating Minister	K E maclean

14 June 1919

George Frederick Charles Young
Vera Annie McIntosh

George Frederick Charles Young
Vera Annie McIntosh
💍 1919/3432

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

28
25

Woodville
Okain's Bay

3 days
14 years

Presbyterian Church Woodville

3369

14 June 1919

R Gardner

No	7
Date of Notice	14 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Frederick Charles Young	Vera Annie McIntosh
	💍 1919/3432
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Okain's Bay
Length of Residence	3 days	14 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Woodville
Folio	3369
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1919
Officiating Minister	R Gardner

16 June 1919

Cecil Selwyn Gaisford
Pauline Mason

Cecil Selwyn Sapsford
Pauline Mason
💍 1919/3433

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Domestic Duties

27
27

Woodville
Woodville

3 days
5 weeks

Church of England Woodville

3370

16 June 1919

K E maclean

No	8
Date of Notice	16 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Selwyn Gaisford	Pauline Mason
BDM Match (95%)	Cecil Selwyn Sapsford	Pauline Mason
	💍 1919/3433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Domestic Duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England Woodville
Folio	3370
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1919
Officiating Minister	K E maclean

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).