Intentions to Marry, 1921 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840500, 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.

1921e contains pages 1735-2142, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 1781

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Shannon Registrar W. Baxter

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

15 April 1921

Rangi Turoa
Veronica O'Connell

Rangi Turoa
Veronica O'Connell
💍 1921/6877

Widower (Married March 1920)
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

26
19

Shannon
Shannon

1 year
1 year

Roman Catholic Church, Shannon

5032

30 April 1921

Rev. James Forrestal, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	15 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rangi Turoa	Veronica O'Connell
	💍 1921/6877
Condition	Widower (Married March 1920)	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Shannon	Shannon
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Shannon
Folio	5032
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Forrestal, Roman Catholic

21 May 1921

Roy Hook
Gladys Anne Amelia McSavaney

Roy Hook
Gladys Annie Amelia McSavney
💍 1921/6878

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

27
20

Shannon
Shannon

2 years
2 years

Anglican Church, Shannon

5033

21 May 1921

Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

No	5
Date of Notice	21 May 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Hook	Gladys Anne Amelia McSavaney
BDM Match (96%)	Roy Hook	Gladys Annie Amelia McSavney
	💍 1921/6878
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Shannon	Shannon
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Shannon
Folio	5033
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 May 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

28 May 1921

Gordon Cranley Staples
Hilda May Neal

Gordon Cranley Staples
Hilda May Neal
💍 1921/6879

Widower (Married 29 November 1920)
Spinster

Plumber
Housekeeper

30
19

Shannon
Shannon

12 years

Anglican Church, Shannon

5034

Charles Smith, father

28 May 1921

Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

No	6
Date of Notice	28 May 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Cranley Staples	Hilda May Neal
	💍 1921/6879
Condition	Widower (Married 29 November 1920)	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Housekeeper
Age	30	19
Dwelling Place	Shannon	Shannon
Length of Residence	12 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Shannon
Folio	5034
Consent	Charles Smith, father
Date of Certificate	28 May 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

20 June 1921

George McKeown Keenan
Maud Grace Elizabeth Gertrude Kilmister

George McKeown Keenan
Maud Grace Elizabeth Gertrude Kilmister
💍 1921/6856

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

23
21

Shannon
Shannon

2 years

Church of England, Shannon

5035

20 June 1921

Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	20 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George McKeown Keenan	Maud Grace Elizabeth Gertrude Kilmister
	💍 1921/6856
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Shannon	Shannon
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Shannon
Folio	5035
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J C Abbott, Anglican

27 June 1921

William Niels McSavaney
Myrtle Edith Hubbard

William Niels McSavney
Myrtle Edith Hubbard
💍 1921/6857

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Waitress

21
20

Shannon
Shannon

2 weeks
2 weeks

Methodist Church, Shannon

5036

Mary Matthews, Mother

27 June 1921

Rev. A J L Minifie, Methodist

No	8
Date of Notice	27 June 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Niels McSavaney	Myrtle Edith Hubbard
BDM Match (98%)	William Niels McSavney	Myrtle Edith Hubbard
	💍 1921/6857
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Waitress
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Shannon	Shannon
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Shannon
Folio	5036
Consent	Mary Matthews, Mother
Date of Certificate	27 June 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A J L Minifie, 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).