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 547

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 30 September 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

109

13 July 1920

William Henry Green Jr
Violet May Connor

William Henry Green
Violet May Connor
💍 1920/8068

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

19
19

Gisborne
Gisborne

12 years
11 years

The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

7783

William Henry Green (Senr) - Father; Hugh Connor - Father

13 July 1920

Henry Ewart Hill Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	109
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Green Jr	Violet May Connor
BDM Match (93%)	William Henry Green	Violet May Connor
	💍 1920/8068
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	12 years	11 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	7783
Consent	William Henry Green (Senr) - Father; Hugh Connor - Father
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Henry Ewart Hill Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

110

13 July 1920

Frank Charles Roche
Rose Schollum

Frank Charles Roche
Rose Schollum
💍 1920/8069

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Domestic duties

22
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

22 years
2 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church Gisborne

7784

13 July 1920

Rev. Thomas Lane Roman Catholic Minister

No	110
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Charles Roche	Rose Schollum
	💍 1920/8069
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Domestic duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	22 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church Gisborne
Folio	7784
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Lane Roman Catholic Minister

111

14 July 1920

William Francis Henley
Florence Lillian Johnson

William Francis Henley
Florence Lillian Johnson
💍 1920/8047

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter (Returned Soldier)
Waitress

24
24

Gisborne
Gisborne

Life
3 weeks

The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

7785

14 July 1920

Henry Ewart Hill Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	111
Date of Notice	14 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Henley	Florence Lillian Johnson
	💍 1920/8047
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter (Returned Soldier)	Waitress
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	Life	3 weeks
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	7785
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Henry Ewart Hill Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

112

20 July 1920

James Gregory Benney
Stella Irene Bartlett

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Clerk

25
22

Makaraka Gisborne
Kaiti Gisborne

25 years
8 years

Holy Trinity Church of England Gisborne

Not Solemnised

20 July 1920

Rev. William Tasman Drake Church of England

No	112
Date of Notice	20 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gregory Benney	Stella Irene Bartlett
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Clerk
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Makaraka Gisborne	Kaiti Gisborne
Length of Residence	25 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church of England Gisborne
Folio	Not Solemnised
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Tasman Drake Church of England

113

16 July 1920

Sidney George Gallop
Edith Alice Johnson

Sidney George Gallop
Edith Alice Johnson
💍 1920/8048

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher (Returned Soldier)
Domestic duties

36
39

Gisborne
Gisborne

16 years
2 years

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne

7786

16 July 1920

Rev. James Aitken Presbyterian

No	113
Date of Notice	16 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney George Gallop	Edith Alice Johnson
	💍 1920/8048
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher (Returned Soldier)	Domestic duties
Age	36	39
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	16 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Gisborne
Folio	7786
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Aitken 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).