Intentions to Marry, 1920 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840490, 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.

1920c contains pages 939-1398, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1061

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar H. R. Bush

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

1 April 1920

James Paterson Pool
Rita Clarice Veale

James Paterson Pool
Rita Clarice Veale
💍 1920/5899

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman
Domestic Duties

30
25

Thames
Thames

3 days
13 years

Residence of Brides parents Thames

4994

1 April 1920

Rev A Milne

No	12
Date of Notice	1 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Paterson Pool	Rita Clarice Veale
	💍 1920/5899
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman	Domestic Duties
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	13 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Brides parents Thames
Folio	4994
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev A Milne

5 April 1920

Frederick Edward de Jongh
Edith Winifred Baxter

Frederick Edward de Jongh
Edith Winifred Baxter
💍 1920/5901

Bachelor
Spinster

Law Clerk
Domestic Duties

17
21

Ngatea
Ngatea

14 days
14 days

St Georges Church Thames

4995

Hattie Boulton, mother

5 April 1920

Rev A. J. Beck

No	13
Date of Notice	5 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Edward de Jongh	Edith Winifred Baxter
	💍 1920/5901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	17	21
Dwelling Place	Ngatea	Ngatea
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	St Georges Church Thames
Folio	4995
Consent	Hattie Boulton, mother
Date of Certificate	5 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev A. J. Beck

5 April 1920

Thomas Archibald McGee
Millicent Matilda Rabe

Thomas Archibald McGee
Millicent Matilda Rabe
💍 1920/5902

Bachelor
Spinster

Teamster
Domestic Duties

38
29

Thames
Thames

4 days
8 months

St Georges Church Thames

4996

5 April 1920

Rev A. J. Beck

No	14
Date of Notice	5 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Archibald McGee	Millicent Matilda Rabe
	💍 1920/5902
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teamster	Domestic Duties
Age	38	29
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	4 days	8 months
Marriage Place	St Georges Church Thames
Folio	4996
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev A. J. Beck

6 April 1920

Alfred Charles Hennerley
Vera Ratcliffe Heard

Alfred Charles Kennerley
Vera Ratcliffe Heard
💍 1920/5903

Bachelor
Spinster

Gasfitter
Schoolteacher

22
22

Thames
Thames

3 days
3 years

Baptist and Congregational Church Thames

4997

6 April 1920

Rev Farquharson Jones

No	15
Date of Notice	6 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Charles Hennerley	Vera Ratcliffe Heard
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Charles Kennerley	Vera Ratcliffe Heard
	💍 1920/5903
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gasfitter	Schoolteacher
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Baptist and Congregational Church Thames
Folio	4997
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev Farquharson Jones

15 April 1920

Cecil Emmett Ashmore Strange
Annie Kathleen Roberts

Cecil Emmett Ashmon Strange
Annie Kathleen Roberts
💍 1920/5904

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulder
Domestic Duties

20
21

Thames
Thames

20 years
8 months

Church of England Thames

4998

James Alfred Strange, Father

15 April 1920

Rev A. J. Beck

No	16
Date of Notice	15 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Emmett Ashmore Strange	Annie Kathleen Roberts
BDM Match (96%)	Cecil Emmett Ashmon Strange	Annie Kathleen Roberts
	💍 1920/5904
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulder	Domestic Duties
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	20 years	8 months
Marriage Place	Church of England Thames
Folio	4998
Consent	James Alfred Strange, Father
Date of Certificate	15 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev A. J. Beck

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).