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 599

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar A. Stott

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

19 June 1920

Wilfred Grant Fargie
Amy Mildred Berry

Wilfred Grant Fargie
Amy Mildred Berry
💍 1920/1047

Widower 12 November 1918
Spinster

Farmer

43
32

Hamilton
Hamilton

4 days
4 days

St. George's Anglican Church, Frankton Junction

4822

19 June 1920

E. M. Cowie, Anglican

No	91
Date of Notice	19 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Grant Fargie	Amy Mildred Berry
	💍 1920/1047
Condition	Widower 12 November 1918	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	43	32
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. George's Anglican Church, Frankton Junction
Folio	4822
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 June 1920
Officiating Minister	E. M. Cowie, Anglican

21 June 1920

Walter Felix Stoning
Edith Emily Smith

Walter Felix
Edith Emily Smith
💍 1920/1048

Divorced Decree Absolute 15 June 1920
Spinster

Carpenter

32
28

Hamilton
Hamilton

2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Hamilton

4823

21 June 1920

A. Stott, Registrar, Hamilton

No	92
Date of Notice	21 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Felix Stoning	Edith Emily Smith
BDM Match (80%)	Walter Felix	Edith Emily Smith
	💍 1920/1048
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 15 June 1920	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hamilton
Folio	4823
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 June 1920
Officiating Minister	A. Stott, Registrar, Hamilton

21 June 1920

William Andrew Paton
Annie Anderson

William Andrew Paton
Annie Anderson
💍 1920/1049

William David Fulton
Minnie Anderson
💍 1920/11825

Bachelor
Spinster

Restaurant Proprietor

26
19

Hamilton
Frankton Junction

6 months
3 years

St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton

4824

David Henry Anderson, father, Frankton J.

21 June 1920

E. M. Cowie, Anglican

No	93
Date of Notice	21 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Andrew Paton	Annie Anderson
	💍 1920/1049
BDM Match (71%)	William David Fulton	Minnie Anderson
	💍 1920/11825
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Restaurant Proprietor
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Frankton Junction
Length of Residence	6 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton
Folio	4824
Consent	David Henry Anderson, father, Frankton J.
Date of Certificate	21 June 1920
Officiating Minister	E. M. Cowie, Anglican

22 June 1920

Reginald William Hampshire
Frances Alice Hampton

Reginald William Hampshire
Frances Alice Hampton
💍 1920/1050

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

28
22

Hamilton
Hamilton

4 days
4 days

St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton

4825

22 June 1920

E. M. Cowie, Anglican

No	94
Date of Notice	22 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald William Hampshire	Frances Alice Hampton
	💍 1920/1050
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton
Folio	4825
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1920
Officiating Minister	E. M. Cowie, Anglican

26 June 1920

Walter Alexander
Agnes Brown

Walter Alexander
Agnes Brown
💍 1920/10181

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
34

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
5 years

Baptist Church, Hamilton

9255

26 June 1920

Rev. Hercus, Baptist

No	95
Date of Notice	26 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Alexander	Agnes Brown
	💍 1920/10181
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Hamilton
Folio	9255
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Hercus, Baptist

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).