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 1450

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A. C. W. Murdoch

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

24 October 1919

William Feilding Baldwin
Ada Gould (M.N. Monkley)

William Feilding Baldwin
Ada Gould
💍 1919/9003

Widower 23-12-13
Divorced 4-6-18

Engineer
Domestic duties

39
33

Feilding
Feilding

3 days
2 years

Office of Registrar at Feilding

8715

24 October 1919

A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

No	56
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Feilding Baldwin	Ada Gould (M.N. Monkley)
BDM Match (69%)	William Feilding Baldwin	Ada Gould
	💍 1919/9003
Condition	Widower 23-12-13	Divorced 4-6-18
Profession	Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	39	33
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar at Feilding
Folio	8715
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

31 October 1919

Edward Marten Finucane
May Plante

Edward Martin Finucane
May Plante
💍 1919/9004

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

41
21

Feilding
Feilding

30 days
8 years

Residence of Mrs Mary Plante Warwick St Feilding

8716

31 October 1919

A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

No	57
Date of Notice	31 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Marten Finucane	May Plante
BDM Match (98%)	Edward Martin Finucane	May Plante
	💍 1919/9004
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	41	21
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	30 days	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Mary Plante Warwick St Feilding
Folio	8716
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1919
Officiating Minister	A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

4 November 1919

James Arthur Hay
Hilda May Bennison

James Arthur Hay
Hilda May Bennison
💍 1919/9005

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Shop assistant

22
19

Feilding
Feilding

18 months
3 years

Office of Registrar at Feilding

8717

4 November 1919

A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

No	58
Date of Notice	4 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Arthur Hay	Hilda May Bennison
	💍 1919/9005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Shop assistant
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	18 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar at Feilding
Folio	8717
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1919
Officiating Minister	A. C. W. Murdoch, Deputy Registrar

19 November 1919

William Robert Stanley Armitage
Laura Flavell Connelly

William Robert Stanley Armitage
Laura Flavall Connelly
💍 1919/9006

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
23

Caernarvon, Sandon
Feilding

2 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church Feilding

8718

19 November 1919

Rev William Kearney, Presbyterian

No	59
Date of Notice	19 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Robert Stanley Armitage	Laura Flavell Connelly
BDM Match (98%)	William Robert Stanley Armitage	Laura Flavall Connelly
	💍 1919/9006
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Caernarvon, Sandon	Feilding
Length of Residence	2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Feilding
Folio	8718
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev William Kearney, Presbyterian

21 November 1919

Alexander Neil
Anne Violet Tunnecliff

Alexander Neil
Annie Violet Tunnicliff
💍 1919/9007

Widower 12-6-19
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

44
35

Feilding
Feilding

3 years
20 years

Residence of Joseph Tunnecliff Manchester Street Feilding

8719

21 November 1919

Rev G. F. Stockwell, Methodist

No	60
Date of Notice	21 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Neil	Anne Violet Tunnecliff
BDM Match (96%)	Alexander Neil	Annie Violet Tunnicliff
	💍 1919/9007
Condition	Widower 12-6-19	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	44	35
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Joseph Tunnecliff Manchester Street Feilding
Folio	8719
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev G. F. Stockwell, Methodist

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).