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 1315

District of Stratford Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. Scott

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

Lionel Frederick Bishop
Bessie Bishop

Lionel Frederick Bishop
Bessie Jenkins
💍 1925/1225

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

24
21

Stratford
Stratford

7 days
7 days

Registrar's office

1796

5 January 1925

J. C. Robins, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Frederick Bishop	Bessie Bishop
BDM Match (75%)	Lionel Frederick Bishop	Bessie Jenkins
	💍 1925/1225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's office
Folio	1796
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. C. Robins, Registrar

6 January 1925

John Alois Jens
Irene Fanny Wilkins

John Alois Jans
Irene Fanny Wilkins
💍 1925/1226

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Domestic

26
17

Toko
Toko

8 days
6 days

Roman Catholic church

1797

Alice Mabel Wilkins, mother

6 January 1925

Father Maples, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	6 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alois Jens	Irene Fanny Wilkins
BDM Match (97%)	John Alois Jans	Irene Fanny Wilkins
	💍 1925/1226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Domestic
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Toko	Toko
Length of Residence	8 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church
Folio	1797
Consent	Alice Mabel Wilkins, mother
Date of Certificate	6 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Father Maples, Roman Catholic

8 January 1925

Edgar Loveridge
Linda Edith Sullivan

Edgar Loveridge
Linda Edith Sullivan
💍 1925/1227

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic

28
19

Toko
Stratford

5 years
19 years

Roman Catholic church

1798

Thomas Alfred Sullivan, father

8 January 1925

Father Hilly, Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	8 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Loveridge	Linda Edith Sullivan
	💍 1925/1227
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Toko	Stratford
Length of Residence	5 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church
Folio	1798
Consent	Thomas Alfred Sullivan, father
Date of Certificate	8 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Father Hilly, Roman Catholic

20 January 1925

Edgar Alfred Fackerley
Evelyn Fover

Edgar Alfred Frazackerley
Evelyn Fever
💍 1925/9801

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller
Domestic

31
26

Toko
Maponga

10 years
6 months

Holy Trinity church

1799

20 January 1925

Rev. J. L. A. Kayle, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	20 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Alfred Fackerley	Evelyn Fover
BDM Match (90%)	Edgar Alfred Frazackerley	Evelyn Fever
	💍 1925/9801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller	Domestic
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Toko	Maponga
Length of Residence	10 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity church
Folio	1799
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. L. A. Kayle, Church of England

26 January 1925

Royce Alexander Ritchie
Helen Barbara Milne

Royce Alexander Ritchie
Helen Barbara Milne
💍 1925/9802

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor mechanic
Saleswoman

30
23

Stratford
Stratford

5 years
23 years

Presbyterian church

1800

26 January 1925

Rev. J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	26 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Royce Alexander Ritchie	Helen Barbara Milne
	💍 1925/9802
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor mechanic	Saleswoman
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	5 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian church
Folio	1800
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. McKenzie, 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).