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 539

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar Henry Ewart 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

17 May 1920

John Russell
Annie Mary McCormack

John Russell
Annie Mary McCormack
💍 1920/1067

Bachelor
Spinster

Stockman (returned soldier)
Waitress

27
23

Gisborne
Gisborne

12 months
6 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

4747

17 May 1920

Rev. Father Thomas Lane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	76
Date of Notice	17 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Russell	Annie Mary McCormack
	💍 1920/1067
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stockman (returned soldier)	Waitress
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	12 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	4747
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Thomas Lane, Roman Catholic Minister

19 May 1920

Richard James Burnett
Ellen Weston

Richard James Burnett
Ellen Weston
💍 1920/1068

Bachelor

Bootmaker
Domestic duties (A married woman whose husband has been absent from her for the past 12 years she not being aware at any time during that period whether he was alive or dead)

41
48

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 years
2 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

4748

19 May 1920

Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	77
Date of Notice	19 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard James Burnett	Ellen Weston
	💍 1920/1068
Condition	Bachelor
Profession	Bootmaker	Domestic duties (A married woman whose husband has been absent from her for the past 12 years she not being aware at any time during that period whether he was alive or dead)
Age	41	48
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	4748
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

19 May 1920

Andrew William Ernest Cole
Florence May Kirby

Andrew William Ernest Cole
Florence May Kirby
💍 1920/1070

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Housemaid

23
21

Gisborne
Gisborne

23 years
5 months

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne

4749

19 May 1920

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	78
Date of Notice	19 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew William Ernest Cole	Florence May Kirby
	💍 1920/1070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housemaid
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	23 years	5 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne
Folio	4749
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

29 May 1920

Newton Wilson
Daisy Louisa Beadle

Newton Wilson
Daisy Louisa Beadle
💍 1920/1071

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

30
29

Gisborne
Gisborne

Life
7 years

Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne

4750

29 May 1920

Rev. Archdeacon Horace Packe, Church of England

No	79
Date of Notice	29 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Newton Wilson	Daisy Louisa Beadle
	💍 1920/1071
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	Life	7 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne
Folio	4750
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon Horace Packe, Church of England

24 May 1920

Arthur Lewis
Catherine Benney

Arthur Lewis
Catherine Benney
💍 1920/1072

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer (Returned soldier)
Domestic Servant

27
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

About 12 years
Life

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

4751

24 May 1920

Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	80
Date of Notice	24 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lewis	Catherine Benney
	💍 1920/1072
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer (Returned soldier)	Domestic Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	About 12 years	Life
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	4751
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

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).