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 639

District of Huntly Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar William Edward Ward

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

David Kerr Porkous
Florence Lilly Elliott Layboarn

David Kerr Porteous
Florence Lilly Elliott Laybourn
💍 1925/969

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Nurse

29
21

Huntly
Huntly

4 days
4 days

Registrars Office, Huntly

1542

5 January 1925

William Edward Ward, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Kerr Porkous	Florence Lilly Elliott Layboarn
BDM Match (93%)	David Kerr Porteous	Florence Lilly Elliott Laybourn
	💍 1925/969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Nurse
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Huntly
Folio	1542
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	William Edward Ward, Registrar

24 January 1925

John Tait
Helen Eliza Hogg

John Tait
Helen Eliza Hogg
💍 1925/970

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Saleswoman

24
24

Huntly
Huntly

3 years
2 days

Registrars Office, Huntly

1543

24 January 1925

William Edward Ward, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	24 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Tait	Helen Eliza Hogg
	💍 1925/970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Saleswoman
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	3 years	2 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Huntly
Folio	1543
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1925
Officiating Minister	William Edward Ward, Registrar

31 January 1925

James Seddon
Jeanie Reid Abercrombie

James Seddon
Jeance Reid Abercrombie
💍 1925/971

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

22
21

Pukemiro
Pukemiro

9 years
1 year

George Allans Boarding house, Pukemiro

1544

31 January 1925

Rev. G. D. Jule, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Seddon	Jeanie Reid Abercrombie
BDM Match (98%)	James Seddon	Jeance Reid Abercrombie
	💍 1925/971
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Pukemiro	Pukemiro
Length of Residence	9 years	1 year
Marriage Place	George Allans Boarding house, Pukemiro
Folio	1544
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. D. Jule, Presbyterian

4 February 1925

Albert Alexander William Harling
Alice Kirkham

Albert Alexander William Harling
Alice Kirkham
💍 1925/973

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic
Domestic Duties

31
29

Edendale
Huntly

6 years

St Pauls Church of England, Huntly

1545

4 February 1925

Rev. J. H. C. Partridge, M.A., Anglican

No	4
Date of Notice	4 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Alexander William Harling	Alice Kirkham
	💍 1925/973
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic	Domestic Duties
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Edendale	Huntly
Length of Residence		6 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Church of England, Huntly
Folio	1545
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. C. Partridge, M.A., Anglican

6 February 1925

Frank Oscar Bateman
Rosa Smith

Frank Oscar Bateman
Rosa Smith
💍 1925/974

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
22

Huntly
Huntly

2 months
18 years

Methodist Church, Huntly

1546

6 February 1925

Rev. G. D. Jule, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Oscar Bateman	Rosa Smith
	💍 1925/974
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Huntly	Huntly
Length of Residence	2 months	18 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Huntly
Folio	1546
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. D. Jule, 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).