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 661

District of Huntly Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar John McLaren

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

8 January 1920

Edward Oliver Jepson
Linda Symes Griffith

Edward Oliver Jepson
Linda Symes Griffith
💍 1920/4707

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
24

Ohinewai
Ohinewai

3 days
3 weeks

Anglican Church, Huntly

1059

8 January 1920

Rev. C. F. R. Harrison - Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Oliver Jepson	Linda Symes Griffith
	💍 1920/4707
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Ohinewai	Ohinewai
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Huntly
Folio	1059
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. R. Harrison - Church of England

27 January 1920

Leopold Winifred Storey
Harriett Eliza Sheeran

Leopold Winfred Storey
Harriett Eliza Sheeran
💍 1920/2040

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Milliner

22
22

Huntly
Huntly

3 days
22 years

Methodist Church, Huntly

948

27 January 1920

Rev. P. J. Mairs, Methodist

No	2
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leopold Winifred Storey	Harriett Eliza Sheeran
BDM Match (98%)	Leopold Winfred Storey	Harriett Eliza Sheeran
	💍 1920/2040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Milliner
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	3 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Huntly
Folio	948
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Mairs, Methodist

2 February 1920

Elrington Quick
Mary Harriet Elizabeth Wyatt

Elrington Quick
Mary Harriet Elizabeth Wyatt
💍 1920/2041

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Clerk

36
26

Taupiri
Hamilton

4 months
2 years

Church of England, Huntly

949

2 February 1920

Rev. G. H. Wyatt, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	2 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Elrington Quick	Mary Harriet Elizabeth Wyatt
	💍 1920/2041
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Clerk
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Taupiri	Hamilton
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Huntly
Folio	949
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Wyatt, Church of England

16 February 1920

Percy Braithwaite
Violet Annie Omelia

Percy Braithwaite
Violet Annie Omelia
💍 1920/2042

Bachelor
Spinster

Coal mining
Domestic

23
18

Pukemiro
Pukemiro

6 years
1 year

The Registrar's Office, Huntly

950

Dora Omelia (mother)

16 February 1920

John McLaren, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	16 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Braithwaite	Violet Annie Omelia
	💍 1920/2042
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coal mining	Domestic
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Pukemiro	Pukemiro
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	The Registrar's Office, Huntly
Folio	950
Consent	Dora Omelia (mother)
Date of Certificate	16 February 1920
Officiating Minister	John McLaren, Registrar

20 February 1920

Frank Alan Burbush
Lily Victoria Foote

Frank Alan Burbush
Lily Victoria Foote
💍 1920/4508

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

34
19

Ohinewai
Ohinewai

5 days
19 years

Church of England, Huntly

951

Mary Stewart Foote (mother)

20 February 1920

Rev. C. F. R. Harrison, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	20 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Alan Burbush	Lily Victoria Foote
	💍 1920/4508
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	34	19
Dwelling Place	Ohinewai	Ohinewai
Length of Residence	5 days	19 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Huntly
Folio	951
Consent	Mary Stewart Foote (mother)
Date of Certificate	20 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. R. Harrison, Church of England

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).