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 1171

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar J. Gorman

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

3 January 1923

Arthur Lewis Sharp
Marie Catherine Ellen Petersen

Arthur Lewis Sharp
Marie Catherine Ellen Petersen
💍 1923/2168

Bachelor
Spinster

Store assistant
Clerk

28
21

Hawera
Hawera

4 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. H. Mundy, Kapara Street, Hawera

1734

3 January 1923

H. B. Craig, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lewis Sharp	Marie Catherine Ellen Petersen
	💍 1923/2168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Store assistant	Clerk
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. Mundy, Kapara Street, Hawera
Folio	1734
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1923
Officiating Minister	H. B. Craig, Presbyterian

4 January 1923

John Lawrence Atkinson
Irell Victoria Hodren

John Lawrence Atkinson
Irell Victoria Hodren
💍 1923/2169

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Shop assistant

28
21

Hawera
Hawera

4 1/2 years
16 years

Methodist Church, Hawera

1735

4 January 1923

A. Liversedge, Methodist

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lawrence Atkinson	Irell Victoria Hodren
	💍 1923/2169
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Shop assistant
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 1/2 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Hawera
Folio	1735
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1923
Officiating Minister	A. Liversedge, Methodist

9 January 1923

Leslie William Shaw
Elizabeth Wilson

Leslie William Shaw
Elizabeth Wilson
💍 1923/2170

Bachelor
Widow (15-12-1920)

Labourer
Cook

33
27

Hawera
Hawera

12 months
9 months

Registrar's Office, Hawera

1736

9 January 1923

J. L. Cunnold, Deputy Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	9 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie William Shaw	Elizabeth Wilson
	💍 1923/2170
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (15-12-1920)
Profession	Labourer	Cook
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	12 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hawera
Folio	1736
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1923
Officiating Minister	J. L. Cunnold, Deputy Registrar

15 January 1923

Edward Francis Clarke
Sarah Small

Edward Francis Clarke
Sarah Small
💍 1923/2171

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanical Engineer
Domestic Duties

29
28

Hawera
Hawera

3 1/2 years
14 months

Roman Catholic Church, Hawera

1737

15 January 1923

P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	15 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Francis Clarke	Sarah Small
	💍 1923/2171
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanical Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	14 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hawera
Folio	1737
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1923
Officiating Minister	P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

30 January 1923

Frank Ernest Woodward
Beatrice Mary Taylor

Frank Ernest Woodward
Beatrice Mary Taylor
💍 1923/2172

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Domestic Duties

27
22

Hawera
Hawera

2 days
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Hawera

1738

30 January 1923

E. J. Dabourne, Pres.

No	5
Date of Notice	30 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Ernest Woodward	Beatrice Mary Taylor
	💍 1923/2172
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Domestic Duties
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	2 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hawera
Folio	1738
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1923
Officiating Minister	E. J. Dabourne, Pres.

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).