Intentions to Marry, 1921 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840497, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1921 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.

1921b contains pages 433-884, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

Page 537

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 31 March 1921 Registrar A. W. Newton

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

31 January 1921

William Howard Watt
Dora May Carey

William Howard Watt
Dora May Carey
💍 1921/9023

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
23

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 days
12 years

St. George's Anglican Church, Frankton Junction

1630

31 January 1921

E. M. Cowie, Anglican

No	21
Date of Notice	31 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Howard Watt	Dora May Carey
	💍 1921/9023
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	St. George's Anglican Church, Frankton Junction
Folio	1630
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1921
Officiating Minister	E. M. Cowie, Anglican

1 February 1921

Lionel Ernest Thomas
Murriel Grace Fow

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Official

27
22

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 years
15 years

St. Paul's Methodist Church, Hamilton

1631

1 February 1921

E. T. Olds, Methodist

No	22
Date of Notice	1 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Ernest Thomas	Murriel Grace Fow
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Official
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Methodist Church, Hamilton
Folio	1631
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1921
Officiating Minister	E. T. Olds, Methodist

1 February 1921

Albert George Jacob
Clara Violet Brown

Albert George Jacob
Clara Violet Brown
💍 1921/9024

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Officer

45
42

Hamilton
Hamilton

2 months
6 days

Methodist Parsonage, Hamilton

1632

1 February 1921

N. Ford, Methodist

No	23
Date of Notice	1 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Jacob	Clara Violet Brown
	💍 1921/9024
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Officer
Age	45	42
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	2 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Hamilton
Folio	1632
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1921
Officiating Minister	N. Ford, Methodist

2 February 1921

Alfred William Willis Robinson
Florence Eileen Donkin

Alfred William Willis Robinson
Florence Eileen Donkin
💍 1921/9032

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

22
20

Hamilton
Hamilton

3 months
2 days

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Hamilton

1633

Ralph Donkin, father

2 February 1921

J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	2 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred William Willis Robinson	Florence Eileen Donkin
	💍 1921/9032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 months	2 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Hamilton
Folio	1633
Consent	Ralph Donkin, father
Date of Certificate	2 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

2 February 1921

Herbert Godfrey Thorpe
Eileen Lydia Fisher

Herbert Godfrey Thorpe
Eileen Lydia Fisher
💍 1921/9043

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk, Post & Telegraph

23
23

Frankton Junction
Frankton Junction

3 years
22 years

St. George's Church, Frankton Junction

1634

2 February 1921

C. F. Harrison, Anglican

No	25
Date of Notice	2 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Godfrey Thorpe	Eileen Lydia Fisher
	💍 1921/9043
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk, Post & Telegraph
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Frankton Junction	Frankton Junction
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. George's Church, Frankton Junction
Folio	1634
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1921
Officiating Minister	C. F. Harrison, 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).