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 1018

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 December 1921 Registrar H. R. Bush

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

8 December 1921

Arthur Richard Jensen
Aggie Boelling

Bachelor
Spinster

Drapers assistant
Jewellers assistant

26
22

Morrinsville
Thames

1 year
6 years

Methodist Church, Thames

8 December 1921

Rev Mitchell, Methodist

No	68
Date of Notice	8 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Richard Jensen	Aggie Boelling
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drapers assistant	Jewellers assistant
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Thames
Length of Residence	1 year	6 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Thames
Folio	76
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev Mitchell, Methodist

9 December 1921

Clarence Wright
Lillian Lois Mary Thomas

Clarence Wright
Lillian Lois May Thomas
💍 1921/3780

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Duties

26
17

Thames
Thames

1 week
1 week

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Thames

9720

Richard Bray Thomas, father

9 December 1921

H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

No	69
Date of Notice	9 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Wright	Lillian Lois Mary Thomas
BDM Match (98%)	Clarence Wright	Lillian Lois May Thomas
	💍 1921/3780
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Thames
Folio	9720
Consent	Richard Bray Thomas, father
Date of Certificate	9 December 1921
Officiating Minister	H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

12 December 1921

John Harrod
Sophie Bozman

John Harrod
Sophie Hoffman
💍 1921/3781

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Manager
Domestic Duties

33
23

Waitakaruru
Thames

12 years
6 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames

9721

12 December 1921

R. Lloyd, Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Thames

No	70
Date of Notice	12 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Harrod	Sophie Bozman
BDM Match (89%)	John Harrod	Sophie Hoffman
	💍 1921/3781
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Waitakaruru	Thames
Length of Residence	12 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames
Folio	9721
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Lloyd, Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Thames

12 December 1921

Harold Augustus Thompson
Mabel Ellen Park

Harold Augustus Thompson
Mabel Ellen Park
💍 1921/3782

Bachelor
Spinster

Gauger Linesman
Domestic

28
18

Thames
Thames

24 years
1 year

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames

9722

Bertha Louise Keven (formerly Park), mother

12 December 1921

R. Lloyd, Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Thames

No	71
Date of Notice	12 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Augustus Thompson	Mabel Ellen Park
	💍 1921/3782
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gauger Linesman	Domestic
Age	28	18
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	24 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames
Folio	9722
Consent	Bertha Louise Keven (formerly Park), mother
Date of Certificate	12 December 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Lloyd, Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Thames

20 December 1921

John O'Reilly
Mary Leonard

John O'Reilly
Mary Leonard
💍 1921/3783

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable
Domestic Duties

43
21

Thames
Ngatea

7 years
10 years

Residence of Leonard, Ngatea

9723

20 December 1921

Rev Father Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	72
Date of Notice	20 December 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John O'Reilly	Mary Leonard
	💍 1921/3783
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable	Domestic Duties
Age	43	21
Dwelling Place	Thames	Ngatea
Length of Residence	7 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Leonard, Ngatea
Folio	9723
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 December 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Dignan, Roman Catholic

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).