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 1371

District of Stratford Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar A. H. James

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 October 1920

Frank John Miscall
Ada Jane Kowaleski

Frank John Miscall
Ada Jane Kowaleski
💍 1920/11827

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

21
19

Stratford
Tuna

16 years
19 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

11122

Frank Kowaleski, Father

2 October 1920

Rev. James McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	60
Date of Notice	2 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank John Miscall	Ada Jane Kowaleski
	💍 1920/11827
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Tuna
Length of Residence	16 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	11122
Consent	Frank Kowaleski, Father
Date of Certificate	2 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. James McKenna, Roman Catholic

8 October 1920

Ernest Oswald Fischer
Gwendoline Horne

Ernest Oswald Fischer
Gwendoline Horne
💍 1920/11828

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi proprietor
Clerk

24
16

Stratford
Stratford

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

11123

Elizabeth Arthur, mother

8 October 1920

A. H. James, Registrar

No	61
Date of Notice	8 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Oswald Fischer	Gwendoline Horne
	💍 1920/11828
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi proprietor	Clerk
Age	24	16
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	11123
Consent	Elizabeth Arthur, mother
Date of Certificate	8 October 1920
Officiating Minister	A. H. James, Registrar

19 October 1920

Egbert Townsend Burrough
Annie Laura Clemoe

Egbert Townsend Burrough
Annie Laura Clemow
💍 1920/12320

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
School teacher

28
26

Stratford
Stratford

3 days
26 years

Methodist Church, Stratford

11124

19 October 1920

Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

No	62
Date of Notice	19 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Egbert Townsend Burrough	Annie Laura Clemoe
BDM Match (97%)	Egbert Townsend Burrough	Annie Laura Clemow
	💍 1920/12320
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	School teacher
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Stratford
Folio	11124
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

30 October 1920

James Percival Trott
Florence Riley

James Percival Trott
Florence Riley
💍 1920/11829

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
21

Midhirst
Stratford

5 months
5 years

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

11125

30 October 1920

Rev. G. W. Howard, Church of England

No	63
Date of Notice	30 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Percival Trott	Florence Riley
	💍 1920/11829
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Midhirst	Stratford
Length of Residence	5 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	11125
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Howard, Church of England

1 November 1920

James Banks
Grace Isabelle Tempero

James Banks
Grace Isabelle Tempero
💍 1920/11830

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

20
22

New Plymouth
Midhirst

2 years
9 years

Presbyterian Church, Stratford

11126

Emily Banks, mother

1 November 1920

Rev. J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	64
Date of Notice	1 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Banks	Grace Isabelle Tempero
	💍 1920/11830
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	Midhirst
Length of Residence	2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Stratford
Folio	11126
Consent	Emily Banks, mother
Date of Certificate	1 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. McKenzie, 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).