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 1006

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 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 March 1921

Basil Conran Smith
Edith Margaret Iles

Basil Conran Smith
Edith Margaret Iles
💍 1921/1131

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
21

Thames
Thames

20 years
5 months

St George's Church Thames

1813

8 March 1921

Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

No	16
Date of Notice	8 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Basil Conran Smith	Edith Margaret Iles
	💍 1921/1131
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	20 years	5 months
Marriage Place	St George's Church Thames
Folio	1813
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

8 March 1921

James Hogg
Laura Annie McPike

James Hogg
Laura Annie McPike
💍 1921/1132

Widower 9th December 1914
Spinster

Hairdresser
Domestic

34
33

Thames
Thames

2 years
33 years

St James' Church Pollen St Thames

1814

8 March 1921

Rev. James Milne, Presbyterian

No	17
Date of Notice	8 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hogg	Laura Annie McPike
	💍 1921/1132
Condition	Widower 9th December 1914	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser	Domestic
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 years	33 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church Pollen St Thames
Folio	1814
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Milne, Presbyterian

15 March 1921

Victor Norman Mathew Smith
Lucy Myrtle Bennett

Victor Norman Mathew Smith
Lucy Myrtle Bennett
💍 1921/1133

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic

21
21

Ngatea Thames
Thames

1 year
18 months

St George's Church Thames

1815

15 March 1921

Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

No	18
Date of Notice	15 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Norman Mathew Smith	Lucy Myrtle Bennett
	💍 1921/1133
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Ngatea Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	1 year	18 months
Marriage Place	St George's Church Thames
Folio	1815
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

16 March 1921

Henry Laird Driver
Isabel Etoile Scott

Henry Laird Driver
Isabel Etoile Scott
💍 1921/1134

Bachelor
Spinster

Boilermaker
Shop assistant

29
23

Thames
Thames

29 years
23 years

Baptist Church Thames

1816

16 March 1921

Rev. Dr. J. J. Jones, Baptist

No	19
Date of Notice	16 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Laird Driver	Isabel Etoile Scott
	💍 1921/1134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker	Shop assistant
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	29 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Thames
Folio	1816
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr. J. J. Jones, Baptist

18 March 1921

Ernest Philip Cooke
Mina Emily Grant

Ernest Philip Cooke
Mina Emily Grant
💍 1921/1135

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaster
Housekeeper

27
19

Matatoki
Matatoki

27 years
2 years

Church of England Thames

1817

William Grant, Farmer, Father

18 March 1921

Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

No	20
Date of Notice	18 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Philip Cooke	Mina Emily Grant
	💍 1921/1135
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaster	Housekeeper
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Matatoki	Matatoki
Length of Residence	27 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Thames
Folio	1817
Consent	William Grant, Farmer, Father
Date of Certificate	18 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

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).