Intentions to Marry, 1925 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840529, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1925 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.

1925b contains pages 461-924, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

Page 561

District of Hamilton Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. A. Besley

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

9 March 1925

William Huatahi Poihipi commonly known as William Huatahi Walker
Mabel Hika McKenzie

William Huatahi Walker
Mabel Hika McKenzie
💍 1925/943

Divorced Decree Absolute 4 March 1925
Widow August 1923

Clerk

36
36

Hamilton
Hamilton

1 year
1 year

Registrars Office Hamilton

1515

9 March 1925

Registrar

No	31
Date of Notice	9 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Huatahi Poihipi commonly known as William Huatahi Walker	Mabel Hika McKenzie
BDM Match (67%)	William Huatahi Walker	Mabel Hika McKenzie
	💍 1925/943
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 4 March 1925	Widow August 1923
Profession	Clerk
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Hamilton
Folio	1515
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

12 March 1925

Robert Adam Elliott
Gladys Mary Harkness

Robert Adam Elliott
Gladys Mary Harkness
💍 1925/942

Bachelor
Spinster

Milking Machine Salesman

28
23

Hamilton
Hamilton

5 years
12 years

Residence of Mr. W. R. Harkness, 26 Rosstrevor Street, Hamilton

1516

12 March 1925

J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

No	32
Date of Notice	12 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Adam Elliott	Gladys Mary Harkness
	💍 1925/942
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Milking Machine Salesman
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	5 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. R. Harkness, 26 Rosstrevor Street, Hamilton
Folio	1516
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

13 March 1925

William Ernest James Wilson
Ivy Veronica O'Shaughnessy

William Ernest James Wilson
Ivy Veronica O'Shaughnessy
💍 1925/944

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

17
20

Hamilton
Hamilton

4 months
1 week

Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton

1517

James Wilson, father (groom); James O'Shaughnessy, father (bride)

13 March 1925

P. O'Flynn, R. C.

No	33
Date of Notice	13 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ernest James Wilson	Ivy Veronica O'Shaughnessy
	💍 1925/944
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	17	20
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	4 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton
Folio	1517
Consent	James Wilson, father (groom); James O'Shaughnessy, father (bride)
Date of Certificate	13 March 1925
Officiating Minister	P. O'Flynn, R. C.

14 March 1925

John Salter Lynch
Gladys Margaret Frisken

John Salter Lynch
Gladys Margaret Frisken
💍 1925/945

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

23
19

Hamilton
Frankton Junction

1 year
19 years

Residence of Mr. T. Frisken, 4 King Street, Frankton Junction

1518

Thomas Frisken, father

14 March 1925

A. M. Aspland, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	14 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Salter Lynch	Gladys Margaret Frisken
	💍 1925/945
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Frankton Junction
Length of Residence	1 year	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. T. Frisken, 4 King Street, Frankton Junction
Folio	1518
Consent	Thomas Frisken, father
Date of Certificate	14 March 1925
Officiating Minister	A. M. Aspland, Presbyterian

18 March 1925

Howard Lesley Adams
Ivy Kerfoot

Howard Lesley Adams
Ivy Kerfoot
💍 1925/946

Bachelor
Spinster

Land Agents Assistant

22
22

Hamilton
Hamilton

10 months
18 months

St. Pauls Church, London Street, Hamilton

1519

18 March 1925

W. Ready, Methodist

No	35
Date of Notice	18 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Lesley Adams	Ivy Kerfoot
	💍 1925/946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Land Agents Assistant
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Hamilton
Length of Residence	10 months	18 months
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, London Street, Hamilton
Folio	1519
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Ready, Methodist

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).