Intentions to Marry, 1925 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840530, 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.

1925c contains pages 925-1356, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1043

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar H. R. Bush

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

16 January 1925

George George Russek
Gladys Edith Howlett

George Joseph Russek
Gladys Edith Howlett
💍 1925/9885

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

34
27

Kereta
Thames

10 years
3 days

St James Church, Thames

1665

16 January 1925

Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	16 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George George Russek	Gladys Edith Howlett
BDM Match (85%)	George Joseph Russek	Gladys Edith Howlett
	💍 1925/9885
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Kereta	Thames
Length of Residence	10 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St James Church, Thames
Folio	1665
Consent	16
Date of Certificate	16 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

31 January 1925

William Hector McDonald
Christina Holt

William Hector McDonald
Christina Holt
💍 1925/9886

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal employee
Domestic duties

23
18

Thames
Kereta

7 days
18 years

Residence of M. E. J. McDonald, Queen Street, Thames

1666

19 February 1925

Rev. A. Ashcroft, Methodist

No	2
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hector McDonald	Christina Holt
	💍 1925/9886
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal employee	Domestic duties
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Thames	Kereta
Length of Residence	7 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Residence of M. E. J. McDonald, Queen Street, Thames
Folio	1666
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Ashcroft, Methodist

6 February 1925

George Holden
Pearl Macduff

George Holden
Pearl MacDuff
💍 1925/9887

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory assistant
Domestic duties

19
17

Thames
Thames

19 years
17 years

Residence of James Milne, Rolleston Street, Thames

1667

George Holden (father), Arthur James Macduff (father)

6 February 1925

Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Holden	Pearl Macduff
BDM Match (96%)	George Holden	Pearl MacDuff
	💍 1925/9887
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory assistant	Domestic duties
Age	19	17
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	19 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of James Milne, Rolleston Street, Thames
Folio	1667
Consent	George Holden (father), Arthur James Macduff (father)
Date of Certificate	6 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian

6 February 1925

John Douglas Taylor
Dinah Sarah Shute

John Douglas Taylor
Dinah Sarah Flinn
💍 1925/9888

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

24
26

Thames
Thames

24 years
12 years

St Georges Church, Thames

1668

6 February 1925

Rev. Robertshawe, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Douglas Taylor	Dinah Sarah Shute
BDM Match (85%)	John Douglas Taylor	Dinah Sarah Flinn
	💍 1925/9888
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	24 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Georges Church, Thames
Folio	1668
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robertshawe, Church of England

12 February 1925

Sidney Alfred Legg
Grace Dorothy Richards

Sidney Alfred Legg
Grace Dorothy Richards
💍 1925/9890

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Factory hand

21
18

Thames
Thames

1 day
18 years

Salvation Army Hall, Thames

1669

12 February 1925

Martin K. Brown, Salvation Army

No	5
Date of Notice	12 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Alfred Legg	Grace Dorothy Richards
	💍 1925/9890
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Factory hand
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	1 day	18 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall, Thames
Folio	1669
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Martin K. Brown, Salvation Army

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).