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 1323

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar A. 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

2 July 1925

Ernest Cyril Rogers
Theodora Winifred Barbara Simmons

Ernest William Rogers
Theodora Winifred Barbara Simmons
💍 1925/6836

Bachelor
Divorced (Decree absolute 19.12.23)

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
25

Stratford
Stratford

12 years
25 years

At the residence of Rev. William Cook, Hamlet St, Stratford

6836

2 July 1925

J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	2 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Cyril Rogers	Theodora Winifred Barbara Simmons
BDM Match (86%)	Ernest William Rogers	Theodora Winifred Barbara Simmons
	💍 1925/6836
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (Decree absolute 19.12.23)
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	12 years	25 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Rev. William Cook, Hamlet St, Stratford
Folio	6836
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1925
Officiating Minister	J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

4 July 1925

George Ernest Nicol
Dorothy Emily Plews

George Earnest Nicol
Dorothy Emily Plews
💍 1925/6837

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory hand
Domestic duties

26
22

Stratford
Waipuku

7 years
22 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

6837

4 July 1925

Thomas Kelly, Roman Catholic

No	35
Date of Notice	4 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ernest Nicol	Dorothy Emily Plews
BDM Match (98%)	George Earnest Nicol	Dorothy Emily Plews
	💍 1925/6837
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory hand	Domestic duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Waipuku
Length of Residence	7 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	6837
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Thomas Kelly, Roman Catholic

4 July 1925

Arthur Norman Bracken
Kathleen Mary Rogers

Arthur Norman McCracken
Kathleen Mary Rodgers
💍 1925/6838

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway surfaceman
Domestic duties

26
20

Te Wera
Douglas

26 years
6 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

6838

John Andrew Rodgers (father)

4 July 1925

Thomas Kelly, Roman Catholic

No	36
Date of Notice	4 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Norman Bracken	Kathleen Mary Rogers
BDM Match (91%)	Arthur Norman McCracken	Kathleen Mary Rodgers
	💍 1925/6838
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway surfaceman	Domestic duties
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Te Wera	Douglas
Length of Residence	26 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	6838
Consent	John Andrew Rodgers (father)
Date of Certificate	4 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Thomas Kelly, Roman Catholic

13 July 1925

Eric Conway Milne
Isabella Mary Wylie

Eric Conway Milne
Isabella Mary Wylie
💍 1925/6839

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

23
26

Toho
Douglas

23 years
13 years

At the residence of Mr W. Young, Regan St, Stratford

6839

13 July 1925

J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	37
Date of Notice	13 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Conway Milne	Isabella Mary Wylie
	💍 1925/6839
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Toho	Douglas
Length of Residence	23 years	13 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr W. Young, Regan St, Stratford
Folio	6839
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1925
Officiating Minister	J. W. McKenzie, Presbyterian

20 July 1925

Albert Head
Florence Mary Bailey

Albert Read
Florence Mary Bailey
💍 1925/6840

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

27
23

New Plymouth
Stratford

3 days
7 months

Methodist Church, Stratford

6840

20 July 1925

George T. Hunt, Methodist

No	38
Date of Notice	20 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Head	Florence Mary Bailey
BDM Match (95%)	Albert Read	Florence Mary Bailey
	💍 1925/6840
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	Stratford
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Stratford
Folio	6840
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1925
Officiating Minister	George T. Hunt, 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).