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 1004

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

1 February 1923

James McLuish Poole
Eunice Caroline Macduff

James Meluizh Poole
Eunice Caroline MacDuff
💍 1923/2098

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk
Domestic Duties

21
20

Thames
Thames

21 years
20 years

Residence of Arthur James Macduff, Thames

1664

Arthur James Macduff, father

1 February 1923

Rev. Melue, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	1 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McLuish Poole	Eunice Caroline Macduff
BDM Match (90%)	James Meluizh Poole	Eunice Caroline MacDuff
	💍 1923/2098
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Arthur James Macduff, Thames
Folio	1664
Consent	Arthur James Macduff, father
Date of Certificate	1 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Melue, Presbyterian

19 February 1923

Herbert Melbourne Turner
Clara Cecilia Burt

Herbert Melbourne Turner
Clara Cecilia Burt
💍 1923/2099

Bachelor
Spinster

Jockey
Domestic Duties

22
16

Thames
Thames

7 days
16 years

Residence of William Burt, Bowen Street, Thames

1665

William Burt, father

19 February 1923

Rev. Jupilie, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	19 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Melbourne Turner	Clara Cecilia Burt
	💍 1923/2099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jockey	Domestic Duties
Age	22	16
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	7 days	16 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Burt, Bowen Street, Thames
Folio	1665
Consent	William Burt, father
Date of Certificate	19 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jupilie, Presbyterian

28 February 1923

William James Lang
Ella Emily Phillips

William James Lang
Ella Emily Phillips
💍 1923/2100

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler
Domestic Duties

25
17

Thames
Thames

25 years
7 years

Residence of H. G. Lang, Upper Albert Street, Thames

1666

Thomas Phillips, father

28 February 1923

Rev. Langford, Church of Christ

No	8
Date of Notice	28 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Lang	Ella Emily Phillips
	💍 1923/2100
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler	Domestic Duties
Age	25	17
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	25 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of H. G. Lang, Upper Albert Street, Thames
Folio	1666
Consent	Thomas Phillips, father
Date of Certificate	28 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Langford, Church of Christ

1 March 1923

Ernest James Bloor
Kathleen Williams

Ernest James Clark
Kathleen Williams
💍 1923/2101

Bachelor
Widow (date of decease former husband 27.12.1918)

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
30

Thames
Thames

28 years
1 year

Dwelling of Eliza Williams, Thames

1667

1 March 1923

Rev. Beck, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	1 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest James Bloor	Kathleen Williams
BDM Match (89%)	Ernest James Clark	Kathleen Williams
	💍 1923/2101
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (date of decease former husband 27.12.1918)
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	28 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Eliza Williams, Thames
Folio	1667
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Beck, Church of England

5 March 1923

Robert Stucley Boden
Maria Maude Grubb

Robert Stucley Boden
Mavis Maude Grubb
💍 1923/2102

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Household duties

26
25

Thames
Thames

1 year
25 years

Queens Hotel, Thames

1668

5 March 1923

Rev. Melue, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	5 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Stucley Boden	Maria Maude Grubb
BDM Match (94%)	Robert Stucley Boden	Mavis Maude Grubb
	💍 1923/2102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Household duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	1 year	25 years
Marriage Place	Queens Hotel, Thames
Folio	1668
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Melue, Presbyterian

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).