Intentions to Marry, 1920 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840489, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1920b contains pages 471-938, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

Page 525

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar G. G. Hill

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

4 February 1920

Henry Talbert Smith
Olive May Atkinson

Henry Tolbot Smith
Olive May Atkinson
💍 1920/3230

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer
Home Duties

20
23

Gisborne
Gisborne

20 years
23 years

Methodist Parsonage, Palmerston Road, Gisborne

902

John Henry Smith (Father)

4 February 1920

Rev. Wm. Herbert-Emanuel Abbey (Methodist)

No	11
Date of Notice	4 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Talbert Smith	Olive May Atkinson
BDM Match (92%)	Henry Tolbot Smith	Olive May Atkinson
	💍 1920/3230
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer	Home Duties
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	20 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Palmerston Road, Gisborne
Folio	902
Consent	John Henry Smith (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Herbert-Emanuel Abbey (Methodist)

4 February 1920

Edric Ernest Chaplin
Lucy Maria Kimber

Edric Ernest Chaplin
Lucy Maria Kimber
💍 1920/3237

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer
Domestic Duties

33
19

Mangapapa, Gisborne
Gisborne

1 year
3 years

Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne

903

Arthur Grafton Kimber (Father)

6 February 1920

Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

No	12
Date of Notice	4 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edric Ernest Chaplin	Lucy Maria Kimber
	💍 1920/3237
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	19
Dwelling Place	Mangapapa, Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	1 year	3 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne
Folio	903
Consent	Arthur Grafton Kimber (Father)
Date of Certificate	6 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

7 February 1920

Leicester Sefton
Millie Willan

Leicester Sefton
Millie Willan
💍 1920/3238

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Home Duties

22
17

Puha
Mangapapa

16 years
17 years

Registrar's Office, Gisborne

904

Greenwood Willan (Father)

7 February 1920

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	13
Date of Notice	7 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leicester Sefton	Millie Willan
	💍 1920/3238
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Home Duties
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Puha	Mangapapa
Length of Residence	16 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Gisborne
Folio	904
Consent	Greenwood Willan (Father)
Date of Certificate	7 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

10 February 1920

Hedley Verner Watt
Carmel Mary McNamara

Hedley Verner Watt
Carmel Mary McNamara
💍 1920/1006

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

35
18

Gisborne
Gisborne

10 years
11 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Gisborne

Note: It was afterwards discovered that the order was made under the Destitute Persons Act giving the mother the custody of the children up to the age of 16 years. So that the mother could not consent. The father would not & a case has been brought to Court for the father to give reasons of refusal. Not completed.

No	14
Date of Notice	10 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hedley Verner Watt	Carmel Mary McNamara
	💍 1920/1006
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	35	18
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Gisborne
Folio
Consent	Note: It was afterwards discovered that the order was made under the Destitute Persons Act giving the mother the custody of the children up to the age of 16 years. So that the mother could not consent. The father would not & a case has been brought to Court for the father to give reasons of refusal. Not completed.
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

11 February 1920

Andrew McGregor
Maud Jones Jones

Andrew McIvor
Maud Jones Jones
💍 1920/3239

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Home Duties

26
28

Gisborne
Weston, Gisborne

1 1/2 years
28 years

Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne

905

11 February 1920

Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

No	15
Date of Notice	11 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew McGregor	Maud Jones Jones
BDM Match (87%)	Andrew McIvor	Maud Jones Jones
	💍 1920/3239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Home Duties
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Weston, Gisborne
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne
Folio	905
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

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).