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 1383

District of Waitara Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar G. Pollard

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

15 January 1920

Walter Gordon Baird
Hilda Josephine Berntsen

Walter Gordon Baird
Hilda Josephine Berntsen
💍 1920/2327

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Clerk

34
23

Waitara
Waitara

18 Months
23 years

Church of England, Waitara

1311

15 January 1920

Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	15 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Gordon Baird	Hilda Josephine Berntsen
	💍 1920/2327
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Clerk
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	18 Months	23 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Waitara
Folio	1311
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

26 January 1920

George Shippen
Gladys Margaret Annie Ulander

George Shippen
Gladys Margaret Annie Ulander
💍 1920/2328

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
25

Waitara
Waitara

5 days
25 years

Church of England, Waitara

1312

26 January 1920

Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	26 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Shippen	Gladys Margaret Annie Ulander
	💍 1920/2328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	5 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Waitara
Folio	1312
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

3 February 1920

Walter Neale Morey
Margaret Alice Kendall

Walter Veale Morey
Margaret Alice Kendall
💍 1920/4994

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Bank Clerk

35
27

Waitara
Feilding

7 Months
1 Month

Church of England, Feilding

1520

3 February 1920

The Ven Archdeacon A. S. Innes Jones, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Neale Morey	Margaret Alice Kendall
BDM Match (97%)	Walter Veale Morey	Margaret Alice Kendall
	💍 1920/4994
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Bank Clerk
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Feilding
Length of Residence	7 Months	1 Month
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	1520
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	The Ven Archdeacon A. S. Innes Jones, Church of England

14 February 1920

Albert Davidson
Helen Margaret Rogers

Albert Davidson
Helen Margaret Rogers
💍 1920/2329

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Waitress

34
17

Urenui
Urenui

7 days
27 days

St Joseph Catholic Church, Waitara

1313

John Henry Rogers, Father

14 February 1920

Rev James McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Davidson	Helen Margaret Rogers
	💍 1920/2329
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Waitress
Age	34	17
Dwelling Place	Urenui	Urenui
Length of Residence	7 days	27 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph Catholic Church, Waitara
Folio	1313
Consent	John Henry Rogers, Father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev James McKenna, Roman Catholic

27 February 1920

Leslie Robert Pepperell
Henrietta Smythe McMerlin

Leslie Robert Pepperell
Henrietta Smythe McNerlin
💍 1920/2330

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Lady Help

36
29

Waitara
Waitara

9 Months
5 years

Knox Presbyterian Church, Waitara

1314

27 February 1920

Mr Charles E. Perkins, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	27 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Robert Pepperell	Henrietta Smythe McMerlin
BDM Match (98%)	Leslie Robert Pepperell	Henrietta Smythe McNerlin
	💍 1920/2330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Lady Help
Age	36	29
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	9 Months	5 years
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church, Waitara
Folio	1314
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Mr Charles E. Perkins, 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).