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 1367

District of Woodville Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar J. Martin

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

10 July 1919

Frederick William Rasmussen
Annie Robinson

Frederick William Rasmussen
Annie Robinson
💍 1919/6358

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic Duties

42
32

Woodville
Woodville

4 days
4 years

Presbyterian Church Woodville

5812

10 July 1919

Rev R Gardner

No	10
Date of Notice	10 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Rasmussen	Annie Robinson
	💍 1919/6358
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic Duties
Age	42	32
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	4 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Woodville
Folio	5812
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev R Gardner

17 July 1919

George William Goff
Veronica Myrtle Jones

George William Goff
Veronica Myrtle Jones
💍 1919/6359

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

22
21

Woodville
Woodville

22 years
7 years

Church of England Woodville

5813

17 July 1919

Rev K. E. Maclean

No	11
Date of Notice	17 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Goff	Veronica Myrtle Jones
	💍 1919/6359
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	22 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Woodville
Folio	5813
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev K. E. Maclean

22 July 1919

Walter Allan Cook
Ada Isabel Brightwell

Walter Allan Cook
Ada Isabel Brightwell
💍 1919/6360

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

23
18

Woodville
Woodville

3 years
18 years

Methodist Church Woodville

5814

Thomas Brightwell Father

22 July 1919

Rev R P Keall

No	12
Date of Notice	22 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Allan Cook	Ada Isabel Brightwell
	💍 1919/6360
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Woodville
Folio	5814
Consent	Thomas Brightwell Father
Date of Certificate	22 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev R P Keall

01 September 1919

Arthur Courtman
Mary Edith Bradley

Arthur Courtman
Mary Edith Bradley
💍 1919/6361

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

29
24

Woodville
Woodville

3 days
3 days

Church of England Woodville

5815

01 September 1919

Rev K E Maclean

No	13
Date of Notice	01 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Courtman	Mary Edith Bradley
	💍 1919/6361
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of England Woodville
Folio	5815
Consent
Date of Certificate	01 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev K E Maclean

23 September 1919

Edward Hunt
Williamina Jessie McPhail

Edward Hunt
Williamina Jessie McPhail
💍 1919/6362

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Domestic Duties

29
31

Woodville
Woodville

3 days
2 months

Presbyterian Church Woodville

5816

23 September 1919

Rev R Gardner Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	23 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Hunt	Williamina Jessie McPhail
	💍 1919/6362
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Domestic Duties
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Woodville
Folio	5816
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev R Gardner 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).