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 831

District of Ngaruawahia Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar George Hayman Morris

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 October 1920

Lewis Walter Kemp
Ada Henrietta Johnston

Lewis Walter Kemp
Ada Henrietta Johnston
💍 1920/11678

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Shop Assistant

24 years
23 years

Taupiri
Taupiri

4 years
10 months

Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia

10863

19 October 1920

Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	19 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Walter Kemp	Ada Henrietta Johnston
	💍 1920/11678
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Shop Assistant
Age	24 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Taupiri	Taupiri
Length of Residence	4 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia
Folio	10863
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

17 November 1920

Harry Lindsey
Ruby Martha Vallance

Harry Lindsey
Ruby Martha Vallance
💍 1920/11679

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28 years
17 years

Ngaruawahia
Ngaruawahia

3 days
5 months

Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia

10864

John Alexander Vallance Father of Bride

19 November 1920

Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

No	15
Date of Notice	17 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Lindsey	Ruby Martha Vallance
	💍 1920/11679
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Ngaruawahia	Ngaruawahia
Length of Residence	3 days	5 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia
Folio	10864
Consent	John Alexander Vallance Father of Bride
Date of Certificate	19 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

27 November 1920

John Thomas Booth
Lillian Stephens

John Thomas Booth
Lillian Stephens
💍 1920/11680

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Domestic Duties

31 years
19 years

Ngaruawahia
Ngaruawahia

31 years
19 years

Private Residence of S E Vincent Ngaruawahia

10865

Francis William Stephens Father of Bride

27 November 1920

Rev Samuel Henderson, Methodist

No	16
Date of Notice	27 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomas Booth	Lillian Stephens
	💍 1920/11680
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Domestic Duties
Age	31 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Ngaruawahia	Ngaruawahia
Length of Residence	31 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Private Residence of S E Vincent Ngaruawahia
Folio	10865
Consent	Francis William Stephens Father of Bride
Date of Certificate	27 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev Samuel Henderson, Methodist

4 December 1920

Henry Frederick Allen Hutchison
Flora Isobel Robertson

Henry Frederick Allen Hutchison
Flora Isabelle Robertson
💍 1920/11681

Bachelor
Spinster

Freezing works employee
Domestic Duties

27 years
23 years

Horotiu
Horotiu

35 days
3 years

Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia

10866

4 December 1920

Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

No	17
Date of Notice	4 December 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Frederick Allen Hutchison	Flora Isobel Robertson
BDM Match (94%)	Henry Frederick Allen Hutchison	Flora Isabelle Robertson
	💍 1920/11681
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Freezing works employee	Domestic Duties
Age	27 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Horotiu	Horotiu
Length of Residence	35 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia
Folio	10866
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Chalmers Mill, Presbyterian

20 December 1920

Herbert James Harris
Gladys Mary Hancock

Herbert James Harris
Gladys Mary Hancock
💍 1920/11682

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

31 years
26 years

Ngaruawahia
Ngaruawahia

5 days
5 weeks

Registrars office Ngaruawahia

10867

20 December 1920

George Hayman Morris, Registrar

No	18
Date of Notice	20 December 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert James Harris	Gladys Mary Hancock
	💍 1920/11682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	31 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Ngaruawahia	Ngaruawahia
Length of Residence	5 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrars office Ngaruawahia
Folio	10867
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 December 1920
Officiating Minister	George Hayman Morris, Registrar

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).