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 809

District of Morrinsville Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar A. H. Boyd

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

Arthur Edmund Harrison
Lucy Rebecca White

Arthur Edmund Harrison
Lucy Rebecca White
💍 1920/4544

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

34
23

Tahuna
Tahuna

5 years
16 years

Methodist Church Tahuna

977

8 January 1920

H. Cottom, Methodist

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Edmund Harrison	Lucy Rebecca White
	💍 1920/4544
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Tahuna	Tahuna
Length of Residence	5 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Tahuna
Folio	977
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	H. Cottom, Methodist

20 January 1920

Albert Edward Butterworth
Rosina Marianne Cottingham

Albert Edward Butterworth
Rosina Marianne Cottingham
💍 1920/4551

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

19
25

Kopaki
Morrinsville

3 days
16 months

Methodist Church Morrinsville

978

Eliza Ann Butterworth, Mother

20 January 1920

J. R. B. Woolloxall, Methodist

No	2
Date of Notice	20 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Butterworth	Rosina Marianne Cottingham
	💍 1920/4551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	19	25
Dwelling Place	Kopaki	Morrinsville
Length of Residence	3 days	16 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Morrinsville
Folio	978
Consent	Eliza Ann Butterworth, Mother
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	J. R. B. Woolloxall, Methodist

3 March 1920

Ernest Robert Matthews
Mary Ellen Robertson

Ernest Robert Matthews
Mary Ellen Robertson
💍 1920/4552

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

42
33

Tatuanui
Tatuanui

9 years
9 years

Registrar's Office Morrinsville

979

3 March 1920

J. Ramsay, Deputy Registrar of marriages

No	3
Date of Notice	3 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Robert Matthews	Mary Ellen Robertson
	💍 1920/4552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	42	33
Dwelling Place	Tatuanui	Tatuanui
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Morrinsville
Folio	979
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1920
Officiating Minister	J. Ramsay, Deputy Registrar of marriages

4 March 1920

Charles Bertram Easther
Katherine Mary Duncan

Charles Bertram Easther
Katherine Mary Duncan
💍 1920/4553

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute dated 11th December 1917

Farmer
Household duties

43
43

Morrinsville
Morrinsville

6 weeks
8 months

Registrar's Office Morrinsville

980

4 March 1920

J. Ramsay, Deputy Registrar of marriages

No	4
Date of Notice	4 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Bertram Easther	Katherine Mary Duncan
	💍 1920/4553
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute dated 11th December 1917
Profession	Farmer	Household duties
Age	43	43
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Morrinsville
Length of Residence	6 weeks	8 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Morrinsville
Folio	980
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1920
Officiating Minister	J. Ramsay, Deputy Registrar of marriages

5 March 1920

Harold George Hornie
Gladys Henley Philpott

Harold George Howie
Gladys Henley Philpott
💍 1920/4554

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Stenographer

25
23

Morrinsville
Morrinsville

10 years
8 years

Knox Presbyterian Church Morrinsville

981

5 March 1920

Morgan Richards, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	5 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold George Hornie	Gladys Henley Philpott
BDM Match (95%)	Harold George Howie	Gladys Henley Philpott
	💍 1920/4554
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Stenographer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Morrinsville
Length of Residence	10 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church Morrinsville
Folio	981
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Morgan Richards, 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).