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 1199

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. P. O'Gorman

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

2 January 1925

Harold Valentine Buckland
Ivy Susan Eleanor Chudleigh

Harold Valentine Buckland
Ivy Susan Eleanor Chudleigh
💍 1925/1179

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

28
25

Hawera
Hawera

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office, Hawera

1727

2 January 1925

J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Valentine Buckland	Ivy Susan Eleanor Chudleigh
	💍 1925/1179
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hawera
Folio	1727
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

3 January 1925

Charles William Young
Mary Ann Elizabeth Towers

Charles William Young
Mary Ann Elizabeth Towers
💍 1925/1180

Widower
Widow

Labourer
Domestic Duties

67
77

Normanby
Normanby

15 years
45 years

Registrar's Office, Hawera

1728

3 January 1925

J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Young	Mary Ann Elizabeth Towers
	💍 1925/1180
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	67	77
Dwelling Place	Normanby	Normanby
Length of Residence	15 years	45 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hawera
Folio	1728
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

12 January 1925

William Trevor Whitfield
Rita Kathleen Bach

William Trevor Whitfeld
Rita Kathleen Bach
💍 1925/1181

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Domestic Duties

35
32

Hawera
Hawera

3 years
29 years

Church of England, Hawera

1729

12 January 1925

H. W. Monaghan, Anglican

No	3
Date of Notice	12 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Trevor Whitfield	Rita Kathleen Bach
BDM Match (98%)	William Trevor Whitfeld	Rita Kathleen Bach
	💍 1925/1181
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Domestic Duties
Age	35	32
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hawera
Folio	1729
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1925
Officiating Minister	H. W. Monaghan, Anglican

21 January 1925

Christopher Kelly
Catherine Campbell

Christopher Kelly
Catherine Campbell
💍 1925/1182

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

34
30

Hawera
Hawera

1 1/2 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Hawera

1730

21 January 1925

J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	21 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Kelly	Catherine Campbell
	💍 1925/1182
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Hawera
Folio	1730
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. P. O'Gorman, Registrar

6 February 1925

Lionel Cecil Valentine
Gladys Mary Shirley

Lionel Cecil Valentine
Gladys Mary Shirley
💍 1925/1183

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyors Assistant
Domestic Duties

19
19

Hawera
Hawera

11 years
3 years

Church of England, Hawera

1731

E. Q. Valentine (mother), Henry Shirley (father)

6 February 1925

H. W. Monaghan, Anglican

No	5
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Cecil Valentine	Gladys Mary Shirley
	💍 1925/1183
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyors Assistant	Domestic Duties
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	11 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hawera
Folio	1731
Consent	E. Q. Valentine (mother), Henry Shirley (father)
Date of Certificate	6 February 1925
Officiating Minister	H. W. Monaghan, Anglican

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).