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 902

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 31 March 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

17 February 1921

Sidney Edwin Harker Briden
Mary Rebecca Dawick

Sidney Edwin Harker Briden
Mary Rebecca Dawick
💍 1921/9138

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Duties

25
22

Rotorua
Rotorua

5 days
5 days

Presbyterian Church, Rotorua

1749

17 February 1921

Rev. A. C. Randerson, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	17 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Edwin Harker Briden	Mary Rebecca Dawick
	💍 1921/9138
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Rotorua
Folio	1749
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Randerson, Presbyterian

23 February 1921

Frederick Bubb
Ngatai Ratima

Frederick Bubb
Ngatai Ratema
💍 1921/9139

Bachelor
Spinster

Teamster
Domestic Duties

23
22

Whakarewarewa
Whakarewarewa

11 months
22 years

Registrar's Office, Rotorua

1750

23 February 1921

Frank Mitchell, Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	23 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Bubb	Ngatai Ratima
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick Bubb	Ngatai Ratema
	💍 1921/9139
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teamster	Domestic Duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Whakarewarewa	Whakarewarewa
Length of Residence	11 months	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Rotorua
Folio	1750
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Frank Mitchell, Registrar

26 February 1921

Harold Cuthbert Penk
Elizabeth Hazel Munro

Harold Cuthbert Penk
Elizabeth Hazel Munro
💍 1921/9140

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

33
28

Rotorua
Rotorua

1 day
20 years

Roman Catholic Church, Rotorua

1751

26 February 1921

Rev. Dean Lightheart, Roman Catholic

No	8
Date of Notice	26 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Cuthbert Penk	Elizabeth Hazel Munro
	💍 1921/9140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	1 day	20 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Rotorua
Folio	1751
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dean Lightheart, Roman Catholic

12 March 1921

Richard Edward Weekes
Mildred Robinson

Richard Edward Weekes
Mildred Robinson
💍 1921/9141

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
30

Rotorua
Nohoroa

1 day
30 years

Residence of P. C. Robinson, Nohoroa

1752

12 March 1921

Rev. Canon F. W. Chatterton, Anglican

No	9
Date of Notice	12 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Edward Weekes	Mildred Robinson
	💍 1921/9141
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Nohoroa
Length of Residence	1 day	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of P. C. Robinson, Nohoroa
Folio	1752
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon F. W. Chatterton, Anglican

14 March 1921

Orton Hamling Wallis
Grace Chandler

Orton Hamling Wallis
Grace Chandler
💍 1921/9143

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
28

Okete, Raglan
Rotorua

28 years
15 years

Methodist Church, Rotorua

1753

14 March 1921

Rev. P. Battey, Methodist

No	10
Date of Notice	14 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Orton Hamling Wallis	Grace Chandler
	💍 1921/9143
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Okete, Raglan	Rotorua
Length of Residence	28 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Rotorua
Folio	1753
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Battey, Methodist

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).