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 526

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar J. Johnson

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

27 January 1923

Albert William Webber
Evelyn Annie Gillies

Albert William Webber
Evelyn Annie Gillies
💍 1923/2517

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

21
21

Hamilton
Hamilton

14 years
12 years

Methodist Parsonage, Firth Street, Hamilton East

1486

27 January 1923

Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

No	16
Date of Notice	27 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert William Webber	Evelyn Annie Gillies
	💍 1923/2517
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	14 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Firth Street, Hamilton East
Folio	1486
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

2 February 1923

Percy Vernon Watkins
Jemima Olive Jamieson

Percy Vernon Watkins
Jemima Olive Jamieson
💍 1923/2518

Bachelor
Spinster

Stationer

26
23

Hamilton
Hamilton

10 years
11 years

St John's Methodist Church, Hamilton East

1487

2 February 1923

Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

No	17
Date of Notice	2 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Vernon Watkins	Jemima Olive Jamieson
	💍 1923/2518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stationer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St John's Methodist Church, Hamilton East
Folio	1487
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

3 February 1923

Reuben Burnard Adolph Fasher
Edith Gwendoline Batt

Reuben Burnard Adolph Fasher
Edith Gwendoline Catt
💍 1923/2519

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
17

Hamilton
Hamilton

5 months
6 months

Registrar's Office, Hamilton

1488

Frances Edward, Mother

3 February 1923

Registrar

No	18
Date of Notice	3 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reuben Burnard Adolph Fasher	Edith Gwendoline Batt
BDM Match (98%)	Reuben Burnard Adolph Fasher	Edith Gwendoline Catt
	💍 1923/2519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	5 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hamilton
Folio	1488
Consent	Frances Edward, Mother
Date of Certificate	3 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Registrar

5 February 1923

William Harry Hayter
Lorraine Victoria Nicholas

William Harry Hayter
Lorraine Victoria Nicholas
💍 1923/2520

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

23
21

Hamilton
Hamilton

16 years
5 years

Methodist Parsonage, Firth Street, Hamilton East

1489

5 February 1923

Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

No	19
Date of Notice	5 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Harry Hayter	Lorraine Victoria Nicholas
	💍 1923/2520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	16 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Firth Street, Hamilton East
Folio	1489
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

5 February 1923

Alan Thomas Blair
Georgina Mary Jarke Hunt Harder

Alan Thomas Blair
Georgina Mary Jane Hunt Harker
💍 1923/2521

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

25
18

Hamilton
Hamilton

1 year
10 years

St John's Methodist Church, Hamilton East

1490

James Harder, Father

5 February 1923

Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

No	20
Date of Notice	5 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alan Thomas Blair	Georgina Mary Jarke Hunt Harder
BDM Match (95%)	Alan Thomas Blair	Georgina Mary Jane Hunt Harker
	💍 1923/2521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	1 year	10 years
Marriage Place	St John's Methodist Church, Hamilton East
Folio	1490
Consent	James Harder, Father
Date of Certificate	5 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Olds, Methodist

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).