Intentions to Marry, 1923 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840516, 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.

1923e contains pages 1745-2124, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 1807

District of Taihape Quarter ending 31 December 1923 Registrar Not explicitly named, signed as Registrar

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

25 September 1923

Geoffrey Thomas Keating
Susan Dillon

Geoffrey Thomas Keating
Susan Dillon
💍 1923/4660

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

21
19

Taihape
Taihape

21 years
4 months

Roman Catholic Church, Taihape

Not stated

No one in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

9 October 1923

Rev. Father B. Hornett, Roman Catholic

No	33
Date of Notice	25 September 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey Thomas Keating	Susan Dillon
	💍 1923/4660
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Taihape
Length of Residence	21 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Taihape
Folio	Not stated
Consent	No one in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father B. Hornett, Roman Catholic

3 October 1923

Thomas Donaldson
Marjorie Petrie Mackenzie

Thomas Donaldson
Marjorie Petrie Mackenzie
💍 1923/7261

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
22

Utiku
Taihape

11 years
21 years

St. David's Presbyterian Church, Taihape

9450

3 October 1923

Rev. J. C. Loan, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	3 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Donaldson	Marjorie Petrie Mackenzie
	💍 1923/7261
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Utiku	Taihape
Length of Residence	11 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Presbyterian Church, Taihape
Folio	9450
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Loan, Presbyterian

4 October 1923

John Hainsmith Gall
Annie Sharp

John Naismith Gall
Annie Sharp
💍 1923/7272

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Shop Assistant

27
22

Taihape
Taihape

3 years
3 years

Methodist Church, Taihape

9451

4 October 1923

Rev. E. B. Chambers, Methodist

No	35
Date of Notice	4 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hainsmith Gall	Annie Sharp
BDM Match (95%)	John Naismith Gall	Annie Sharp
	💍 1923/7272
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Shop Assistant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Taihape
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Taihape
Folio	9451
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. B. Chambers, Methodist

4 October 1923

Allan Stewart Roderick Thompson
Hila May Dill

Allan Stewart Roderick Thompson
Lila May Dill
💍 1923/7279

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic Duties

19
18

Taoroa
Taoroa

3 years
1 year

Registrar's Office, Taihape

9452

Lydia Legner, mother; no one in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

20 October 1923

A. H. Berry, Registrar, Taihape

No	36
Date of Notice	4 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Stewart Roderick Thompson	Hila May Dill
BDM Match (96%)	Allan Stewart Roderick Thompson	Lila May Dill
	💍 1923/7279
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	19	18
Dwelling Place	Taoroa	Taoroa
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Taihape
Folio	9452
Consent	Lydia Legner, mother; no one in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1923
Officiating Minister	A. H. Berry, Registrar, Taihape

15 October 1923

Geoffrey Colin Gredres
Beatrice Martin

Geoffrey Colin Greaves
Beatrice Martin
💍 1923/7280

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
21

Taihape
Karioi

3 days
2 years

Presbyterian Church, Taihape

9453

15 October 1923

Rev. J. C. Loan, Presbyterian

No	37
Date of Notice	15 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey Colin Gredres	Beatrice Martin
BDM Match (95%)	Geoffrey Colin Greaves	Beatrice Martin
	💍 1923/7280
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Karioi
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Taihape
Folio	9453
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Loan, 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).