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 1301

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 September 1923 Registrar J. B. Robins

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 July 1923

Leonard Thomas Stanley Gill
Florence Martha Ostler

Leonard Thomas Stanley Gill
Florence Martha Ostler
💍 1923/4419

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
20

Stratford
Stratford

3 days
1 day

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

6679

John Ostler, father

3 July 1923

Rev. B. W. Howard, Church of England

No	41
Date of Notice	3 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Thomas Stanley Gill	Florence Martha Ostler
	💍 1923/4419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	6679
Consent	John Ostler, father
Date of Certificate	3 July 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. W. Howard, Church of England

5 July 1923

Arthur Maynard Hignett
Minnie Margaret Brown

Arthur Maynard Hignett
Minnie Margaret Brown
💍 1923/4420

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
19

Stratford
Stratford

15 years
19 years

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

6680

William Brown, father

5 July 1923

Rev. B. W. Howard, Church of England

No	42
Date of Notice	5 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Maynard Hignett	Minnie Margaret Brown
	💍 1923/4420
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	15 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	6680
Consent	William Brown, father
Date of Certificate	5 July 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. W. Howard, Church of England

16 July 1923

Frank Angus
Amy May Richards Reed

Frank Angus
Amy May Richards Reed
💍 1923/4421

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

25
23

Loko
Loko

1 day
23 years

The Church, Loko

6681

16 July 1923

Rev. J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	43
Date of Notice	16 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Angus	Amy May Richards Reed
	💍 1923/4421
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Loko	Loko
Length of Residence	1 day	23 years
Marriage Place	The Church, Loko
Folio	6681
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

16 July 1923

Hugh Hansen
Eileen Doris Collins

Hugh Hansen
Eileen Doris Collins
💍 1923/4422

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
20

Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford
Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford

29 years
20 years

Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford

6682

William Elliot Collins, father

16 July 1923

Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

No	44
Date of Notice	16 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Hansen	Eileen Doris Collins
	💍 1923/4422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford	Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford
Length of Residence	29 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. E. Collins, Brecon Road, Stratford
Folio	6682
Consent	William Elliot Collins, father
Date of Certificate	16 July 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

21 July 1923

Arthur George Danne
Lonis Marguerite Oliver

Arthur George Sanne
Loris Marguerite Oliver
💍 1923/4423

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
19

Stratford
Stratford

8 years
12 years

Methodist Church, Stratford

6683

Harry Brown Oliver, father

21 July 1923

Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

No	45
Date of Notice	21 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Danne	Lonis Marguerite Oliver
BDM Match (95%)	Arthur George Sanne	Loris Marguerite Oliver
	💍 1923/4423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	8 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Stratford
Folio	6683
Consent	Harry Brown Oliver, father
Date of Certificate	21 July 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. B. Neale, Methodist

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).