Intentions to Marry, 1923 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840513, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 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.

1923b contains pages 433-894, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

Page 617

District of Huntly Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar M. Ward

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

6 January 1923

Taiki Rotana Himiona
Pirihira Rongo Te Kohai

Taiki Rotana Himiona
Pirihira Rongo Te Aokia
💍 1923/1999

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Household duties

20
17

Puketapu Huntly
Puketapu Huntly

20 years
8 years

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

1539

Ana Hokie Tarawhiti (Mother), Mere Tame Williams (Guardian)

6 January 1923

Elder George S. Taylor, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints

No	1
Date of Notice	6 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Taiki Rotana Himiona	Pirihira Rongo Te Kohai
BDM Match (91%)	Taiki Rotana Himiona	Pirihira Rongo Te Aokia
	💍 1923/1999
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Household duties
Age	20	17
Dwelling Place	Puketapu Huntly	Puketapu Huntly
Length of Residence	20 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Folio	1539
Consent	Ana Hokie Tarawhiti (Mother), Mere Tame Williams (Guardian)
Date of Certificate	6 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Elder George S. Taylor, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints

19 January 1923

James Calder
Margaret Gertrude McConnell

James Calder
Margaret Gertrude McConnell
💍 1923/2000

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

46
30

Orini
Orini

6 years
17 years

Orini Public Hall

1540

19 January 1923

Rev J. C. Mill, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	19 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Calder	Margaret Gertrude McConnell
	💍 1923/2000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	46	30
Dwelling Place	Orini	Orini
Length of Residence	6 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Orini Public Hall
Folio	1540
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev J. C. Mill, Presbyterian

15 February 1923

John Brown
Clemence Lee

John Brown
Clemence Lee
💍 1923/2001

Widower
Widow

Coal miner
Cigar maker

33
34

Glen Afton
Pukemiro

7 months
3 months

Registrars Office Huntly

1541

15 February 1923

W. E. Ward, Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	15 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Brown	Clemence Lee
	💍 1923/2001
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Coal miner	Cigar maker
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Glen Afton	Pukemiro
Length of Residence	7 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Huntly
Folio	1541
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 February 1923
Officiating Minister	W. E. Ward, Registrar

23 February 1923

David Harry Ruston
Florence May Speirs

David Harry Ruston
Florence May Speirs
💍 1923/2002

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Clerk

27
24

Huntly
Huntly

24 years
20 years

St Pauls Church Huntly

1542

23 February 1923

Rev C. F. R. Harrison, Anglican

No	4
Date of Notice	23 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Harry Ruston	Florence May Speirs
	💍 1923/2002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Clerk
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	24 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Church Huntly
Folio	1542
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev C. F. R. Harrison, Anglican

9 March 1923

Henry Earnest Percy Dichary
Ethel May Weaving

Henry Earnest Percy Vickary
Ethel May Weaving
💍 1923/2003

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

31
25

Huntly
Huntly

18 months
4 days

St Pauls Church Huntly

1543

9 March 1923

Rev C. F. R. Harrison, Anglican

No	5
Date of Notice	9 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Earnest Percy Dichary	Ethel May Weaving
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Earnest Percy Vickary	Ethel May Weaving
	💍 1923/2003
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	18 months	4 days
Marriage Place	St Pauls Church Huntly
Folio	1543
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev C. F. R. Harrison, Anglican

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).