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 1201

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. S. Colman

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

6 March 1925

Frank Raseby Lemm
Fanny Christina Ingram

Frank Naseby Lemm
Fanny Christina Ingram
💍 1925/1165

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable
Domestic Duties

23
23

Hawera
Hawera

3 years
23 years

Presbyterian Church Hawera

1737

6 March 1925

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

No	11
Date of Notice	6 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Raseby Lemm	Fanny Christina Ingram
BDM Match (97%)	Frank Naseby Lemm	Fanny Christina Ingram
	💍 1925/1165
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable	Domestic Duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Hawera
Folio	1737
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1925
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

16 March 1925

Philip Gordon Dwyer
Margaret Bartlett

Philip Cordon Dwyer
Margaret Bartlett
💍 1925/1166

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant
Milliner

33
28

Christchurch
Hawera

5 years
7 days

Roman Catholic Church Hawera

1738

16 March 1925

P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

No	12
Date of Notice	16 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Gordon Dwyer	Margaret Bartlett
BDM Match (97%)	Philip Cordon Dwyer	Margaret Bartlett
	💍 1925/1166
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant	Milliner
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Hawera
Length of Residence	5 years	7 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Hawera
Folio	1738
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1925
Officiating Minister	P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

24 March 1925

Samuel George McGowan
Thelma May McPhail

Samuel George McGowan
Thelma May McPhail
💍 1925/1167

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
Teacher of Dancing

22
21

Hawera
Hawera

3 weeks
17 days

Registrar's Office Hawera

1739

24 March 1925

J. P. Gorman, Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	24 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel George McGowan	Thelma May McPhail
	💍 1925/1167
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	Teacher of Dancing
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 weeks	17 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hawera
Folio	1739
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J. P. Gorman, Registrar

30 March 1925

Samuel Thomas Gilmer
Eleanor Amelia Shirley

Samuel Thomas Gilmer
Eleanor Amelia Shirley
💍 1925/1168

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

33
22

Hawera
Hawera

3 years
3 years

Presbyterian Church Hawera

1740

30 March 1925

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	30 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Thomas Gilmer	Eleanor Amelia Shirley
	💍 1925/1168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	22
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Hawera
Folio	1740
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1925
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

31 March 1925

John James Dalton
Katherine Elizabeth Dalton

John James Dalton
Katherine Elizabeth Johnston
💍 1925/1169

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

33
31

Stratford
Hawera

4 years
1 week

Presbyterian Church Hawera

1741

31 March 1925

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

No	15
Date of Notice	31 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John James Dalton	Katherine Elizabeth Dalton
BDM Match (91%)	John James Dalton	Katherine Elizabeth Johnston
	💍 1925/1169
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Hawera
Folio	1741
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1925
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, 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).