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 765

District of Ngaruawahia Quarter ending 31 March 1922 Registrar En Pascoe

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

4 January 1922

Peter Sanders
Margaret Jack Lunny

Peter Sanders
Margaret Jack Lunny
💍 1922/1685

Bachelor
Spinster

Coal miner
Domestic Duties

25
22

Glenmassey
Glenmassey

3 months
3 days

Registrar's office Ngaruawahia

1434

4 January 1922

En Pascoe, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Sanders	Margaret Jack Lunny
	💍 1922/1685
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coal miner	Domestic Duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Glenmassey	Glenmassey
Length of Residence	3 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Ngaruawahia
Folio	1434
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1922
Officiating Minister	En Pascoe, Registrar

6 January 1922

Ernest Victor Lovegrove
Sarah Adelaide Armstrong

Ernest Victor Lovegrove
Sarah Adelaide Armstrong
💍 1922/1662

Divorced (decree absolute dated 9th November 1921)
Divorced (decree absolute dated 26th July 1920)

Butter Maker
Domestic Duties

42
38

Ngaruawahia
Ngaruawahia

6 years
5 years

Registrar's office Ngaruawahia

1435

6 January 1922

En Pascoe, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	6 January 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Victor Lovegrove	Sarah Adelaide Armstrong
	💍 1922/1662
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute dated 9th November 1921)	Divorced (decree absolute dated 26th July 1920)
Profession	Butter Maker	Domestic Duties
Age	42	38
Dwelling Place	Ngaruawahia	Ngaruawahia
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Ngaruawahia
Folio	1435
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1922
Officiating Minister	En Pascoe, Registrar

14 February 1922

Lenare George Leslie Polwarth
Maude Helen Graves

Leonard George Leslie Polwarth
Maude Helen Graves
💍 1922/1663

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor
Tailoress

33
29

Huntly
Ngaruawahia

1 year
29 years

Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia

1436

14 February 1922

Rev J C Mill, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	14 February 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lenare George Leslie Polwarth	Maude Helen Graves
BDM Match (97%)	Leonard George Leslie Polwarth	Maude Helen Graves
	💍 1922/1663
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor	Tailoress
Age	33	29
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Ngaruawahia
Length of Residence	1 year	29 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia
Folio	1436
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev J C Mill, Presbyterian

17 February 1922

Frank Ernest Brown
Bessie McLean

Frank Ernest Brown
Bessie McLean
💍 1922/1664

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Duties

29
30

Cambridge
Gordonton

1 year
2 years

Residence of J Riddell, Gordonton

1437

17 February 1922

Rev R Mackie, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	17 February 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Ernest Brown	Bessie McLean
	💍 1922/1664
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Cambridge	Gordonton
Length of Residence	1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J Riddell, Gordonton
Folio	1437
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev R Mackie, Presbyterian

20 February 1922

George Lewis Hancock
Dorothy Barr Brosnan

George Lewis Hancock
Dorothy Barr Brosnan
💍 1922/1665

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Drapers Assistant

31
25

Ngaruawahia
Christchurch

16 months
25 years

Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia

1438

20 February 1922

Rev J C Mill, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	20 February 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lewis Hancock	Dorothy Barr Brosnan
	💍 1922/1665
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Drapers Assistant
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Ngaruawahia	Christchurch
Length of Residence	16 months	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ngaruawahia
Folio	1438
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev J C Mill, Presbyterian

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).