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 1252

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar W. Buchanan

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

26 February 1919

Archibald Sporle
Louise Florence Amelia Burrows

Archibald Sporle
Louise Florence Amelia Burrows
💍 1919/1190

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Driver
Shop Assistant

20
18

Napier
Napier

2 years
18 years

Registrar's Office, Napier

1169

Robert James William Sporle, Father; Jesse Alexander Burrows, Father

26 February 1919

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	16
Date of Notice	26 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Sporle	Louise Florence Amelia Burrows
	💍 1919/1190
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Driver	Shop Assistant
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	1169
Consent	Robert James William Sporle, Father; Jesse Alexander Burrows, Father
Date of Certificate	26 February 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

26 February 1919

James Mann
Clara Rosetta Jones

James Mann
Clara Rosetta Jones
💍 1919/1191

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
26

Napier
Napier

6 days
8 months

Residence of John Jones, Vigor Brown Street, Napier

1170

26 February 1919

Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, Methodist

No	17
Date of Notice	26 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Mann	Clara Rosetta Jones
	💍 1919/1191
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	6 days	8 months
Marriage Place	Residence of John Jones, Vigor Brown Street, Napier
Folio	1170
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, Methodist

28 February 1919

Alexander Runciman Tait
Winifred Margaret Hickey

Alexander Runciman Tait
Winifred Margaret Hickey
💍 1919/1192

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Duties

22
23

Napier
Petane

3 days
23 years

St. Patrick's Church, Napier

1171

28 February 1919

Rev. Father Tymons, Roman Catholic

No	18
Date of Notice	28 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Runciman Tait	Winifred Margaret Hickey
	💍 1919/1192
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Duties
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Napier	Petane
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Napier
Folio	1171
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Tymons, Roman Catholic

5 March 1919

Benjamin Barnett Brickman
Violet Louise Weedon Carlson

Benjamin Barnott Brickman
Violet Louise Weedon Carlson
💍 1919/1193

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser
Cashier

20
20

Napier
Napier

15 days
5 days

Registrar's Office, Napier

1172

Morris Brickman, Father; Emma Alice Eden Tremain, Mother

5 March 1919

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	19
Date of Notice	5 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Barnett Brickman	Violet Louise Weedon Carlson
BDM Match (98%)	Benjamin Barnott Brickman	Violet Louise Weedon Carlson
	💍 1919/1193
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser	Cashier
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	15 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	1172
Consent	Morris Brickman, Father; Emma Alice Eden Tremain, Mother
Date of Certificate	5 March 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

6 March 1919

John Thackeray Lipscomb
Olive Treve Newman

John Thackeray Lipscomb
Olive Treve Newman
💍 1919/1194

Widower, 26 August 1918
Widow, 2 January 1917

Bank Manager
Nurse

56
30

Napier
Napier

6 years
10 months

Residence of J. G. Lipscomb, Napier

1173

6 March 1919

Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

No	20
Date of Notice	6 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thackeray Lipscomb	Olive Treve Newman
	💍 1919/1194
Condition	Widower, 26 August 1918	Widow, 2 January 1917
Profession	Bank Manager	Nurse
Age	56	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	6 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Residence of J. G. Lipscomb, Napier
Folio	1173
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Asher, 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).