Intentions to Marry, 1922 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840505, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1922 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.

1922b contains pages 423-876, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

[NOTE: roughly one-third of the images from this register were too out of focus to use, this will hopefully be rectified soon]

Page 709

District of Matamata Quarter ending 30 September 1922 Registrar S. Williams

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

1 July 1922

Alexander Mcphail
Frances Martha Gould

Alexander McPhail
Frances Martha Gould
💍 1922/5988

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

41
29

Taihoa Matamata
Taihoa Matamata

4 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church, Matamata

6041

1 July 1922

Rev. H. B. Stuart, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	1 July 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Mcphail	Frances Martha Gould
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander McPhail	Frances Martha Gould
	💍 1922/5988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	41	29
Dwelling Place	Taihoa Matamata	Taihoa Matamata
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Matamata
Folio	6041
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Stuart, Presbyterian

3 July 1922

William Baynard Harris
Norah Gorvett Coombe

William Baynard Harris
Norah Gorvett Coombe
💍 1922/5989

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver
Domestic duties

36
32

Hinuera
Hinuera

4 days
3 weeks

Methodist Church, Hinuera

6042

3 July 1922

Rev. A. E. Jefferson, Methodist

No	8
Date of Notice	3 July 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Baynard Harris	Norah Gorvett Coombe
	💍 1922/5989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver	Domestic duties
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Hinuera	Hinuera
Length of Residence	4 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Hinuera
Folio	6042
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Jefferson, Methodist

17 July 1922

Edward Richard Davies
Amy Neal

Edward Richard Davies
Amy Neal
💍 1922/5990

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

35
31

Matamata
Matamata

5 1/2 years
6 1/2 years

Church of England, Matamata

6043

17 July 1922

Rev. W. E. Connolly, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	17 July 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Richard Davies	Amy Neal
	💍 1922/5990
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	35	31
Dwelling Place	Matamata	Matamata
Length of Residence	5 1/2 years	6 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Matamata
Folio	6043
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Connolly, Church of England

22 July 1922

William George Dally
Gladys Muriel Carter

William George Dally
Gladys Muriel Carter
💍 1922/5991

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Postmistress

23
21

Matamata
Tepoi

12 months
2 months

Methodist Church, Tepoi

6044

22 July 1922

Rev. A. E. Jefferson, Methodist

No	10
Date of Notice	22 July 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Dally	Gladys Muriel Carter
	💍 1922/5991
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Postmistress
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Matamata	Tepoi
Length of Residence	12 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Tepoi
Folio	6044
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Jefferson, Methodist

19 August 1922

Lewis Donovan Little
Eva Dorothy Davey

Lewis Donovan Little
Eva Dorothy Devey
💍 1922/5992

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Tailoress

28
21

Matamata
Matamata

4 days
17 years

Residence of W. G. Davey, Matamata

6045

21 August 1922

Rev. John J. Taylor, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	19 August 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Donovan Little	Eva Dorothy Davey
BDM Match (97%)	Lewis Donovan Little	Eva Dorothy Devey
	💍 1922/5992
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Tailoress
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Matamata	Matamata
Length of Residence	4 days	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. G. Davey, Matamata
Folio	6045
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 August 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. John J. Taylor, 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).