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 1339

District of Opunake Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar J. McF. Stanley

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

2 July 1920

Robert Moorcock
Violet Nellie Ivy Shippey

Robert Moorcock
Violet Nellie Ivy Shippey
💍 1920/8421

Widower
Spinster

Motorman
Domestic

26
20

Opunake
Opunake

3 years
8 years

Anglican Church, Opunake

8186

Arthur Shippey, Father

2 July 1920

C. Palmer, Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	2 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Moorcock	Violet Nellie Ivy Shippey
	💍 1920/8421
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Motorman	Domestic
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	3 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Opunake
Folio	8186
Consent	Arthur Shippey, Father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1920
Officiating Minister	C. Palmer, Anglican

2 July 1920

Laurence Norman Heissenbuttel
Winifred Smith

Lawrence Norman Heissenbuttel
Winifred Smith
💍 1920/8422

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

32
25

Pungarehu
Pungarehu

12 years
Life

Anglican Church, Pungarehu, Rahotu

8187

2 July 1920

C. Addenbrook, Anglican

No	11
Date of Notice	2 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Norman Heissenbuttel	Winifred Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Lawrence Norman Heissenbuttel	Winifred Smith
	💍 1920/8422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Pungarehu	Pungarehu
Length of Residence	12 years	Life
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Pungarehu, Rahotu
Folio	8187
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1920
Officiating Minister	C. Addenbrook, Anglican

5 July 1920

Francis Albert Cook
Margaret Malcolm

Francis Albert Cook
Margaret Malcolm
💍 1920/8423

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

27
22

Oaonui
Oaonui

7 years
Life

Presbyterian Church, Opunake

8188

5 July 1920

J. C. Mill, Presbyterian

No	12
Date of Notice	5 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Albert Cook	Margaret Malcolm
	💍 1920/8423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Oaonui	Oaonui
Length of Residence	7 years	Life
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Opunake
Folio	8188
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1920
Officiating Minister	J. C. Mill, Presbyterian

27 July 1920

Harry Bishop
Hilda May Fayth

Harry Bishop
Hilda May Fayth
💍 1920/8424

Bachelor
Spinster

Garage Proprietor
Domestic

27
25

Opunake
Opunake

4 days
4 days

Anglican Church, Opunake

8189

27 July 1920

C. Palmer, Anglican

No	13
Date of Notice	27 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Bishop	Hilda May Fayth
	💍 1920/8424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Garage Proprietor	Domestic
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Opunake
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Opunake
Folio	8189
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1920
Officiating Minister	C. Palmer, Anglican

9 August 1920

Herbert Henry West
Lillian Vera Coombe

Herbert Henry West
Lilian Vera Coombe
💍 1920/8425

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

19
19

Oaonui
Oaonui

6 months
14 years

Anglican Church, Opunake

8190

Lot West, Father; George J Coombe, Father

9 August 1920

C. Palmer, Anglican

No	14
Date of Notice	9 August 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Henry West	Lillian Vera Coombe
BDM Match (97%)	Herbert Henry West	Lilian Vera Coombe
	💍 1920/8425
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Oaonui	Oaonui
Length of Residence	6 months	14 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Opunake
Folio	8190
Consent	Lot West, Father; George J Coombe, Father
Date of Certificate	9 August 1920
Officiating Minister	C. Palmer, Anglican

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).