Intentions to Marry, 1921 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840498, 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.

1921c contains pages 885-1316, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 913

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 31 December 1921 Registrar F. Mitchell

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

3 October 1921

Pore Eru Nikouma
Ellen Murray

Pore Eru Nikorima
Ellen Murray
💍 1921/5740

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Housemaid

21
23

Rotorua
Rotorua

21 years
23 years

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

9638

3 October 1921

F. Mitchell, Registrar

No	42
Date of Notice	3 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Pore Eru Nikouma	Ellen Murray
BDM Match (94%)	Pore Eru Nikorima	Ellen Murray
	💍 1921/5740
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Housemaid
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	21 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	9638
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1921
Officiating Minister	F. Mitchell, Registrar

7 November 1921

George Wetini
Lily Hana

Bachelor
Spinster

Mill-hand
Domestic Duties

24
18

Ngongotaha
Ngongotaha

3 years
18 years

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

N.S.

No person in New Zealand having authority to give consent.

Cert. not yet issued

No	43
Date of Notice	7 November 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Wetini	Lily Hana
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mill-hand	Domestic Duties
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Ngongotaha	Ngongotaha
Length of Residence	3 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	N.S.
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority to give consent.
Date of Certificate	Cert. not yet issued
Officiating Minister

21 November 1921

William James Walker
Mona Madeline Scally

William James Walker
Mona Madeline Scally
💍 1921/5741

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Clerk

31
24

Rotorua
Rotorua

22 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Church, Rotorua

9639

21 November 1921

Dean Lightheart, Roman Catholic

No	44
Date of Notice	21 November 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Walker	Mona Madeline Scally
	💍 1921/5741
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Clerk
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	22 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Rotorua
Folio	9639
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1921
Officiating Minister	Dean Lightheart, Roman Catholic

29 November 1921

James Graham Campbell
Agnes Emily Willmott

James Graham Campbell
Agnes Emily Willmott
💍 1921/5742

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman
Domestic Duties

25
22

Rotorua
Rotorua

11 months
22 years

St. Luke's Church of England, Rotorua

9640

29 November 1921

Rev. Archdeacon F. W. Chatterton, Church of England

No	45
Date of Notice	29 November 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Graham Campbell	Agnes Emily Willmott
	💍 1921/5742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman	Domestic Duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	11 months	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church of England, Rotorua
Folio	9640
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon F. W. Chatterton, Church of England

5 December 1921

James Butters
Celestine Hilda Sharp

James Butters
Celestine Hilda Sharp
💍 1921/5743

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician
Domestic Duties

25
18

Rotorua
Rotorua

4 days
5 days

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

9641

Edward Harold Sharp, Father

5 December 1921

F. Mitchell, Registrar

No	46
Date of Notice	5 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Butters	Celestine Hilda Sharp
	💍 1921/5743
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician	Domestic Duties
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	4 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	9641
Consent	Edward Harold Sharp, Father
Date of Certificate	5 December 1921
Officiating Minister	F. Mitchell, Registrar

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).