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 996

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

1 May 1922

Albert Edward Bouway
Kathleen Josephine Gee

Albert Edward Conway
Kathleen Josephine Gill
💍 1922/4366

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician
Domestic

28
25

Thames
Thames

3 days
1 month

St Francis Church, Thames

3848

1 May 1922

Rev. F. J. Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	20
Date of Notice	1 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Bouway	Kathleen Josephine Gee
BDM Match (89%)	Albert Edward Conway	Kathleen Josephine Gill
	💍 1922/4366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician	Domestic
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	St Francis Church, Thames
Folio	3848
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Dignan, Roman Catholic

8 May 1922

George Egbert Cosgrove
Elizabeth Gordon

George Egbert Cosgrove
Elizabeth Gordon
💍 1922/4367

Bachelor
Widow (date of decease of former husband 21.11.1918)

Labourer
Domestic Duties

22
29

Thames
Thames

2 years
29 years

St Francis Church, Thames

3849

8 May 1922

Rev. F. J. Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	21
Date of Notice	8 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Egbert Cosgrove	Elizabeth Gordon
	💍 1922/4367
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (date of decease of former husband 21.11.1918)
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	22	29
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 years	29 years
Marriage Place	St Francis Church, Thames
Folio	3849
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Dignan, Roman Catholic

13 May 1922

George Boswell
Margaret Hilda Whitehead

George Boswell
Margaret Hilda Whitehead
💍 1922/4368

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher
Domestic Duties

30
23

Thames
Thames

2 years 5 months
23 years

Baptist and Congregational Church, Thames

3850

13 May 1922

Rev. W. S. Lambert

No	22
Date of Notice	13 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Boswell	Margaret Hilda Whitehead
	💍 1922/4368
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher	Domestic Duties
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 years 5 months	23 years
Marriage Place	Baptist and Congregational Church, Thames
Folio	3850
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Lambert

17 May 1922

Herbert John Day
Nora Bright

Herbert John Day
Nora Evelyn Bright
💍 1922/2772

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory Employee
Domestic Duties

19
22

Ngatea
Wellington

1 year
1 day

Methodist Parsonage, Queen Street, Thames

3851

Under Section 27

19 July 1922

Rev. A. Mitchell, Methodist (Notice given, certificate not applied for)

No	23
Date of Notice	17 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Day	Nora Bright
BDM Match (81%)	Herbert John Day	Nora Evelyn Bright
	💍 1922/2772
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory Employee	Domestic Duties
Age	19	22
Dwelling Place	Ngatea	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	1 day
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Queen Street, Thames
Folio	3851
Consent	Under Section 27
Date of Certificate	19 July 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Mitchell, Methodist (Notice given, certificate not applied for)

18 May 1922

Bertrand Alexander Strange
Ethel Victoria Williams

Bertrand Alexander Strange
Ethel Victoria Williams
💍 1922/2783

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocers assistant
Grocers assistant

25
24

Thames
Thames

25 years
24 years

Presbyterian Church, Thames

3852

18 May 1922

Rev. Jas Milne, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	18 May 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertrand Alexander Strange	Ethel Victoria Williams
	💍 1922/2783
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocers assistant	Grocers assistant
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	25 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Thames
Folio	3852
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 May 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas Milne, 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).