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 1267

District of New Plymouth Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. S. Medley

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

9 March 1925

Alfred Smith
Mary Amor

Alfred Smith
Mary Amor
💍 1925/1232

Widower
Widow

Farmer
Nurse

57 years
47 years

Meenui
New Plymouth

10 years
1 year

Residence of Mr. H. Amor, 653 Devon Street, New Plymouth

1780

9 March 1925

O. Blundell, Presbyterian

No	31
Date of Notice	9 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Smith	Mary Amor
	💍 1925/1232
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	57 years	47 years
Dwelling Place	Meenui	New Plymouth
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. Amor, 653 Devon Street, New Plymouth
Folio	1780
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1925
Officiating Minister	O. Blundell, Presbyterian

10 March 1925

Henry Edward Brown
Elina Berg

Henry Edward Brown
Alma Berg
💍 1925/1233

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Accountant

51 years
33 years

New Plymouth
Waitara

3 days
6 weeks

Baptist Tabernacle, New Plymouth

1781

10 March 1925

H. Blunden, Adventist

No	32
Date of Notice	10 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Edward Brown	Elina Berg
BDM Match (85%)	Henry Edward Brown	Alma Berg
	💍 1925/1233
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Accountant
Age	51 years	33 years
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	Waitara
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Baptist Tabernacle, New Plymouth
Folio	1781
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1925
Officiating Minister	H. Blunden, Adventist

11 March 1925

Victor Hague Nelson
Mary Henefy

Victor Hague Nelson
Mary Menefy
💍 1925/1234

Widower
Spinster

Seaman
Home Duties

32 years
23 years

New Plymouth
New Plymouth

2 months
6 months

Registrar's Office, New Plymouth

1782

11 March 1925

J. S. Medley, Registrar

No	33
Date of Notice	11 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Hague Nelson	Mary Henefy
BDM Match (95%)	Victor Hague Nelson	Mary Menefy
	💍 1925/1234
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Home Duties
Age	32 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	New Plymouth
Length of Residence	2 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, New Plymouth
Folio	1782
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J. S. Medley, Registrar

18 March 1925

William Edward Brown
Norah Kathleen Corkill

William Edward Brown
Norah Kathleen Corkill
💍 1925/1211

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant
Clerk

33 years
24 years

New Plymouth
New Plymouth

3 years
24 years

St. Mary's Anglican Church, New Plymouth

1783

18 March 1925

E. H. Strong, Anglican

No	34
Date of Notice	18 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Brown	Norah Kathleen Corkill
	💍 1925/1211
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant	Clerk
Age	33 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	New Plymouth
Length of Residence	3 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Anglican Church, New Plymouth
Folio	1783
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1925
Officiating Minister	E. H. Strong, Anglican

18 March 1925

Howard Edward Okey
Grace Eleanor Easthope

Howard Edward Okey
Grace Eleanor Easthope
💍 1925/1212

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Clerk

26 years
23 years

New Plymouth
New Plymouth

26 years
1 year

Whiteley Memorial Church, New Plymouth

1784

18 March 1925

J. R. Richards, Methodist

No	35
Date of Notice	18 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Edward Okey	Grace Eleanor Easthope
	💍 1925/1212
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Clerk
Age	26 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	New Plymouth
Length of Residence	26 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Whiteley Memorial Church, New Plymouth
Folio	1784
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J. R. Richards, Methodist

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).