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 599

District of Helensville Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. B. Bard

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

5 January 1925

Arthur Lionel Levet
Rachel Eva Duval

Arthur Lionel Levet
Rachel Eva Duval
💍 1925/979

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

33
21

Helensville
Helensville

33 years
6 years

St Matthews Church, Helensville

1528

5 January 1925

H. R. B. Gillerpie, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lionel Levet	Rachel Eva Duval
	💍 1925/979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Helensville	Helensville
Length of Residence	33 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Helensville
Folio	1528
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	H. R. B. Gillerpie, Church of England

23 January 1925

Mark Grey
Merle Florence Irene Kerr

Mark Grey
Merle Florence Irene Kerr
💍 1925/980

Widower (25 September 1919)
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

52
21

Helensville
Helensville

22 years
2 years

Office of Registrar, Helensville

1529

23 January 1925

A. B. Bard, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mark Grey	Merle Florence Irene Kerr
	💍 1925/980
Condition	Widower (25 September 1919)	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	52	21
Dwelling Place	Helensville	Helensville
Length of Residence	22 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Helensville
Folio	1529
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	A. B. Bard, Registrar

10 February 1925

Tony Frances Antonovich
Maud Minnie Powell

Tony Frances Antonovich
Maud Minnie Powell
💍 1925/981

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman
Waitress

28
27

Helensville
Helensville

10 years
1 year

Office of Registrar, Helensville

1530

10 February 1925

A. B. Bard, Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	10 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tony Frances Antonovich	Maud Minnie Powell
	💍 1925/981
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman	Waitress
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Helensville	Helensville
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Helensville
Folio	1530
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1925
Officiating Minister	A. B. Bard, Registrar

26 February 1925

William Myers
Lily Wooldridge Whittington

William Myers
Lily Wooldridge Whittington
💍 1925/982

Widower (12 February 1925)
Widow (7 March 1920)

Retired
Housekeeper

73
59

Helensville
Helensville

3 days
3 days

Office of Registrar, Helensville

1531

26 February 1925

A. B. Bard, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	26 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Myers	Lily Wooldridge Whittington
	💍 1925/982
Condition	Widower (12 February 1925)	Widow (7 March 1920)
Profession	Retired	Housekeeper
Age	73	59
Dwelling Place	Helensville	Helensville
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Helensville
Folio	1531
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1925
Officiating Minister	A. B. Bard, Registrar

2 March 1925

Charles Henry Down
Mahala Eliza Florence Jenkins

Charles Henry Town
Mahala Eliza Florence Jenkins
💍 1925/983

Widower (22 January 1922)
Spinster

Railway Surfaceman
Domestic duties

32
29

Ahuroa
Ahuroa

1 week
1 month

Residence of J. O. Jenkins, Ahuroa

1532

2 March 1925

J. H. Ruprecht, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	2 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Down	Mahala Eliza Florence Jenkins
BDM Match (97%)	Charles Henry Town	Mahala Eliza Florence Jenkins
	💍 1925/983
Condition	Widower (22 January 1922)	Spinster
Profession	Railway Surfaceman	Domestic duties
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Ahuroa	Ahuroa
Length of Residence	1 week	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of J. O. Jenkins, Ahuroa
Folio	1532
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J. H. Ruprecht, 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).

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).