Intentions to Marry, 1923 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840514, 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.

1923c contains pages 895-1334, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1005

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1923 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

7 March 1923

Samuel Robertson
Charlotte Sarker

Samuel Robertson
Charlotte Tasker
💍 1923/2103

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook
Domestic

42
40

Thames
Thames

42 years
40 years

St. Francis Church, Thames

1669

7 March 1923

Father Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	7 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Robertson	Charlotte Sarker
BDM Match (94%)	Samuel Robertson	Charlotte Tasker
	💍 1923/2103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook	Domestic
Age	42	40
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	42 years	40 years
Marriage Place	St. Francis Church, Thames
Folio	1669
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Father Dignan, Roman Catholic

8 March 1923

Frederick Feist
Madge Robinson

Frederick Feisst
Madge Robinson
💍 1923/2105

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker
Domestic

23
19

Thames
Thames

2 years
19 years

Residence of bride's parents, Thames

1670

William Robinson, father

8 March 1923

Rex Langford, Church of Christ

No	12
Date of Notice	8 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Feist	Madge Robinson
BDM Match (97%)	Frederick Feisst	Madge Robinson
	💍 1923/2105
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Domestic
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of bride's parents, Thames
Folio	1670
Consent	William Robinson, father
Date of Certificate	8 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rex Langford, Church of Christ

14 March 1923

Cecil Horace Boulgrain
Eulalie Mary Gwendolen Adams

Cecil Horace Poulgrain
Eulalie Mary Gwendolen Adams
💍 1923/2106

Bachelor
Spinster

Barrister and Solicitor
Draughtswoman

28
23

Thames
Thames

7 years
23 years

St. Georges Church, Thames

1671

14 March 1923

Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	14 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Horace Boulgrain	Eulalie Mary Gwendolen Adams
BDM Match (98%)	Cecil Horace Poulgrain	Eulalie Mary Gwendolen Adams
	💍 1923/2106
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barrister and Solicitor	Draughtswoman
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	7 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Georges Church, Thames
Folio	1671
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Beck, Church of England

14 March 1923

John Tomas
Mellicent Sterby

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman
Waitress

21
23

Thames
Thames

21 years
12 months

The Manse, Pollen Street, Thames

1672

14 March 1923

Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	14 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Tomas	Mellicent Sterby
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman	Waitress
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	21 years	12 months
Marriage Place	The Manse, Pollen Street, Thames
Folio	1672
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

28 March 1923

Arthur James O'Reilly
Agnes Kathleen Leonard

Arthur James OReilly
Agnes Kathleen Leonard
💍 1923/2108

Bachelor
Spinster

Tramway Employee
Domestic Duties

34
18

Auckland
Ngatea

12 years

Dwelling-house of Thomas Leonard, Ngatea

1673

Thomas Leonard, father

28 March 1923

Father O'Carroll, Roman Catholic

No	15
Date of Notice	28 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James O'Reilly	Agnes Kathleen Leonard
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur James OReilly	Agnes Kathleen Leonard
	💍 1923/2108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tramway Employee	Domestic Duties
Age	34	18
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Ngatea
Length of Residence		12 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling-house of Thomas Leonard, Ngatea
Folio	1673
Consent	Thomas Leonard, father
Date of Certificate	28 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Father O'Carroll, Roman Catholic

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).