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 562

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar A. G. Kelly

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

174

1 October 1920

William Curtis
Tolfa Ormuskey

William Curtis
Etta Ormsby
💍 1920/11543

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

68
60

Gisborne
Gisborne

45 years
30 years

The Public Hospital, Mangapapa, Gisborne

10738

30 October 1920

Rev. Horace Packe, Church of England, Gisborne

No	174
Date of Notice	1 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Curtis	Tolfa Ormuskey
BDM Match (75%)	William Curtis	Etta Ormsby
	💍 1920/11543
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	68	60
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	45 years	30 years
Marriage Place	The Public Hospital, Mangapapa, Gisborne
Folio	10738
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Horace Packe, Church of England, Gisborne

175

1 November 1920

Dennis Kane
Ada Olive Candy

Dennis Kane
Ada Olive Candy
💍 1920/11544

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Cook

29
30

Waimata, Gisborne
Waimata, Gisborne

29 years
2 years

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

10739

4 November 1920

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic, Gisborne

No	175
Date of Notice	1 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dennis Kane	Ada Olive Candy
	💍 1920/11544
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Cook
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Waimata, Gisborne	Waimata, Gisborne
Length of Residence	29 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	10739
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic, Gisborne

176

4 November 1920

Harold Ernest Wale
Helen Russell Forsyth

Harold Ernest Hale
Helen Russell Forsyth
💍 1920/11545

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Duties

26
18

Gisborne
Gisborne

1 week
6 years

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

10740

Wallace Forsyth (Father)

4 November 1920

Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

No	176
Date of Notice	4 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Ernest Wale	Helen Russell Forsyth
BDM Match (97%)	Harold Ernest Hale	Helen Russell Forsyth
	💍 1920/11545
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Duties
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	1 week	6 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
Folio	10740
Consent	Wallace Forsyth (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne

177

5 November 1920

William Cornelius Keenan
Ivy May Gordon

William Cornelius Neenan
Ivy May Condon
💍 1920/11626

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Dressmaker

29
26

Ormond
Ormond

29 years
12 years

The residence of the Bride's Parents, Ormond

10741

5 November 1920

Rev. Gerald H. Morse, Church of England, Waerenga-a-hika

No	177
Date of Notice	5 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Cornelius Keenan	Ivy May Gordon
BDM Match (91%)	William Cornelius Neenan	Ivy May Condon
	💍 1920/11626
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Dressmaker
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Ormond	Ormond
Length of Residence	29 years	12 years
Marriage Place	The residence of the Bride's Parents, Ormond
Folio	10741
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Gerald H. Morse, Church of England, Waerenga-a-hika

178

6 November 1920

Douglas Crichton Henderson
Constance Isabella Wallace

Douglas Crichton Henderson
Constance Isabella Wallace
💍 1920/11637

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
Clerk

26
20

Gisborne
Gisborne

10 months
8 years

Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne

10742

John Watts Wallace (Father)

6 November 1920

Rev. Horace Packe, Church of England, Gisborne

No	178
Date of Notice	6 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Crichton Henderson	Constance Isabella Wallace
	💍 1920/11637
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	Clerk
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	10 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church of England, Gisborne
Folio	10742
Consent	John Watts Wallace (Father)
Date of Certificate	6 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Horace Packe, Church of England, Gisborne

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).