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 541

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar H. E. 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 June 1920

Leslie Moyle
Eva Rebecca Bell

Leslie Moyle
Eva Rebecca Bell
💍 1920/1015

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Home duties

28
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

8 days
22 years

St. Paul's Church Kaiti Gisborne

4757

4 June 1920

Rev. William Tasman Drake, Church of England

No	86
Date of Notice	4 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Moyle	Eva Rebecca Bell
	💍 1920/1015
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Home duties
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	8 days	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church Kaiti Gisborne
Folio	4757
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Tasman Drake, Church of England

7 June 1920

John Shepherd
Williamina Fowlie Findlay

John Shepherd
Williamina Fowlie Findlay
💍 1920/1016

Bachelor
Spinster

Pastry Cook
Nurse

37
33

Gisborne
Gisborne

5 days
2 months

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne

4758

7 June 1920

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	87
Date of Notice	7 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Shepherd	Williamina Fowlie Findlay
	💍 1920/1016
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pastry Cook	Nurse
Age	37	33
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	5 days	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne
Folio	4758
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

8 June 1920

Edward Joseph O'Dwyer
Sarah Walklett

Edward Joseph O'Dwyer
Sarah Walklett
💍 1920/1017

Widower 1st July 1913
Widow 8 January 1919

Storeman
Domestic duties

38
40

Gisborne
Gisborne

almost Life
about 14 years

The Residence of the Bride, Gladstone Road, Gisborne

4759

8 June 1920

Rev. Father Thomas Lane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	88
Date of Notice	8 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Joseph O'Dwyer	Sarah Walklett
	💍 1920/1017
Condition	Widower 1st July 1913	Widow 8 January 1919
Profession	Storeman	Domestic duties
Age	38	40
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	almost Life	about 14 years
Marriage Place	The Residence of the Bride, Gladstone Road, Gisborne
Folio	4759
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Thomas Lane, Roman Catholic Minister

10 June 1920

Francis Joseph Mitchell
Janet Smith

Francis Joseph Mitchell
Janet Smith
💍 1920/1018

Bachelor
Widow 14 October 1918

Labourer
Home duties

42
36

Gisborne
Gisborne

14 years
7 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

4760

10 June 1920

Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	89
Date of Notice	10 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Joseph Mitchell	Janet Smith
	💍 1920/1018
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 14 October 1918
Profession	Labourer	Home duties
Age	42	36
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	14 years	7 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	4760
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Henry Ewart Hill, Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

11 June 1920

Horace John Cates
Helen Spittal

Horace John Oates
Helen Spittal
💍 1920/1019

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Home duties

33
27

Gisborne
Gisborne

14 years
8 years

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne

4761

11 June 1920

Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	90
Date of Notice	11 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace John Cates	Helen Spittal
BDM Match (97%)	Horace John Oates	Helen Spittal
	💍 1920/1019
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Home duties
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	14 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne
Folio	4761
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

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).