Intentions to Marry, 1924 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840521, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1924 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.

1924b contains pages 445-906, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

Page 787

District of Morrinsville Quarter ending 30 September 1924 Registrar H. C. Arnold

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

12 August 1924

John George McDonald
Thelma Muriel Innes

John George McDonald
Thelma Muriel Innes
💍 1924/2441

Bachelor
Spinster

Postman
Domestic Duties

28
24

Onehunga
Matamata

3 years
3 years

Church of England, Morrinsville

6689

1 August 1924

Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

No	10
Date of Notice	12 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John George McDonald	Thelma Muriel Innes
	💍 1924/2441
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postman	Domestic Duties
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Matamata
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Morrinsville
Folio	6689
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

13 August 1924

Delfor Ritchie Paterson
Eleanor Ann Florence Charlton

Telfer Ritchie Paterson
Eleanor Ann Florence Charlton
💍 1924/2442

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
22

Morrinsville
Tauhei, Morrinsville

4 years
10 years

Gosforth, Tauhei, Morrinsville

6690

13 August 1924

Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

No	11
Date of Notice	13 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Delfor Ritchie Paterson	Eleanor Ann Florence Charlton
BDM Match (96%)	Telfer Ritchie Paterson	Eleanor Ann Florence Charlton
	💍 1924/2442
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Tauhei, Morrinsville
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Gosforth, Tauhei, Morrinsville
Folio	6690
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 August 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

18 August 1924

Baden Powell Devner
Ida Margaret Thompson

Baden Powell Turner
Ida Margaret Thompson
💍 1924/2443

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
21

Morrinsville
Morrinsville

6 weeks
6 weeks

Residence of Alexander Murray Thompson, Morrinsville

6691

18 August 1924

Rev. M. Richards

No	12
Date of Notice	18 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Baden Powell Devner	Ida Margaret Thompson
BDM Match (92%)	Baden Powell Turner	Ida Margaret Thompson
	💍 1924/2443
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Morrinsville
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Alexander Murray Thompson, Morrinsville
Folio	6691
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 August 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Richards

26 August 1924

John Murray Colville
Violet Conigrove Martin

John Murray Colville
Violet Conigrove Martin
💍 1924/2444

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
24

Walton
Matamata

3 days
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Morrinsville

6692

26 August 1924

Rev. M. Richards

No	13
Date of Notice	26 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Murray Colville	Violet Conigrove Martin
	💍 1924/2444
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Walton	Matamata
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Morrinsville
Folio	6692
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Richards

10 September 1924

John Albert Devlyn
Mary Agnes Mitchell

John Albert Devlyn
Mary Agnes Mitchell
💍 1924/2445

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

31
16

Morrinsville
Morrinsville

3 years
5 years

Church of England, Morrinsville

6693

Adrian Mitchell, Father

10 September 1924

Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

No	14
Date of Notice	10 September 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Albert Devlyn	Mary Agnes Mitchell
	💍 1924/2445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	16
Dwelling Place	Morrinsville	Morrinsville
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Morrinsville
Folio	6693
Consent	Adrian Mitchell, Father
Date of Certificate	10 September 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Kempthorne

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).