Intentions to Marry, 1922 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840506, 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.

1922c contains pages 877-1290, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 997

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1922 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

18 May 1922

Leo Clifton Gilbert
Edna Muriel Beale

Leo Clifton Gilbert
Edna Muriel Beale
💍 1922/2790

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

30
18

Matatoki
Puriri

8 weeks
18 years

Thames

3853

Mary Jane Beale, mother

18 May 1922

Rev. Milne, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	18 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Clifton Gilbert	Edna Muriel Beale
	💍 1922/2790
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	30	18
Dwelling Place	Matatoki	Puriri
Length of Residence	8 weeks	18 years
Marriage Place	Thames
Folio	3853
Consent	Mary Jane Beale, mother
Date of Certificate	18 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Milne, Presbyterian

27 May 1922

William George Thompson Smith
Phoebe McQuade

William George Thomson Smith
Phoebe McQuade
💍 1922/2791

Widower (date deceased former wife 20 May 1920)
Spinster

Cabinet maker
Domestic Duties

51
42

Thames
Thames

51 years
42 years

Thames

3854

27 May 1922

Rev. Milne, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	27 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Thompson Smith	Phoebe McQuade
BDM Match (98%)	William George Thomson Smith	Phoebe McQuade
	💍 1922/2791
Condition	Widower (date deceased former wife 20 May 1920)	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker	Domestic Duties
Age	51	42
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	51 years	42 years
Marriage Place	Thames
Folio	3854
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Milne, Presbyterian

2 June 1922

Dillon Shepherd Keir
Annie Gwendoline Remnant

Dillon Shepherd Kemp
Annie Gwendoline Rennick
💍 1922/2792

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School-mistress

23
21

Kopu
Kopu

3 days
21 years

St. George's Church, Kopu

3855

2 June 1922

Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

No	27
Date of Notice	2 June 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dillon Shepherd Keir	Annie Gwendoline Remnant
BDM Match (87%)	Dillon Shepherd Kemp	Annie Gwendoline Rennick
	💍 1922/2792
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School-mistress
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Kopu	Kopu
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	St. George's Church, Kopu
Folio	3855
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 June 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

8 June 1922

Allan Douglas McCormick
Hannah Bretherton

Allan Loughlin McCormick
Hannah Bretherton
💍 1922/2793

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

31
22

Matatoki
Dwellinghouse of James McCormick, Matatoki

31 years
12 years

Matatoki

3856

8 June 1922

Rev. A. J. Milne, Presbyterian

No	28
Date of Notice	8 June 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Douglas McCormick	Hannah Bretherton
BDM Match (92%)	Allan Loughlin McCormick	Hannah Bretherton
	💍 1922/2793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Matatoki	Dwellinghouse of James McCormick, Matatoki
Length of Residence	31 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Matatoki
Folio	3856
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Milne, Presbyterian

9 June 1922

Thomas Samuel Harris
Emily Catherine Mary Maui

Thomas Samuel Harris
Emily Catherine Mary Main
💍 1922/2794

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

25
27

Waitakaruru
Waitakaruru

4 years
2 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames

3857

9 June 1922

H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

No	29
Date of Notice	9 June 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Samuel Harris	Emily Catherine Mary Maui
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Samuel Harris	Emily Catherine Mary Main
	💍 1922/2794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Waitakaruru	Waitakaruru
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames
Folio	3857
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 June 1922
Officiating Minister	H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

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).