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 1333

District of Waimate Plains Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar J. E. Ward

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

21 April 1925

Ernest Joseph Purvis
Ada Mary Evans

Ernest Joseph Purvis
Ada Mary Evans
💍 1925/4597

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor mechanic
Domestic duties

25
22

Okaiawa
Aurora

7 years
18 years

Methodist Church, Manaia

4378

21 April 1925

Rev. E. Roberts, Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	21 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Joseph Purvis	Ada Mary Evans
	💍 1925/4597
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor mechanic	Domestic duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Okaiawa	Aurora
Length of Residence	7 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Manaia
Folio	4378
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Roberts, Methodist

24 April 1925

Matthew Jenkins Jones
Ada Bettridge

Matthew Jenkins Jones
Ada Bettridge
💍 1925/4598

Divorced (Decree absolute 22 April 1925)
Widow (3rd August 1924)

Farmer
Farmer

33
35

Kaupokonui
Kaupokonui

10 years
11 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Manaia

4379

24 April 1925

J. E. Ward, Registrar of Marriages

No	4
Date of Notice	24 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Jenkins Jones	Ada Bettridge
	💍 1925/4598
Condition	Divorced (Decree absolute 22 April 1925)	Widow (3rd August 1924)
Profession	Farmer	Farmer
Age	33	35
Dwelling Place	Kaupokonui	Kaupokonui
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Manaia
Folio	4379
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1925
Officiating Minister	J. E. Ward, Registrar of Marriages

11 June 1925

Josef Kaiser
Josephina Zimmerman

Josef Kaiser
Josephina Zimmerman
💍 1925/4599

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
21

Manaia
Manaia

5 years
1 week

Roman Catholic Church, Manaia

4380

11 June 1925

Rev. M. M. O'Dwyer, Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	11 June 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Josef Kaiser	Josephina Zimmerman
	💍 1925/4599
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Manaia
Length of Residence	5 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Manaia
Folio	4380
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. M. O'Dwyer, Roman Catholic

15 June 1925

Thomas Barr
Mary Ellen Stevenson

Thomas Ban
Mary Ellen Stevenson
💍 1925/4600

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School Teacher

30
23

Manaia
Manaia

6 years
23 years

St. Cuthbert's Church, Manaia

4381

15 June 1925

Rev. A. B. Swainson, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	15 June 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Barr	Mary Ellen Stevenson
BDM Match (91%)	Thomas Ban	Mary Ellen Stevenson
	💍 1925/4600
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School Teacher
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Manaia
Length of Residence	6 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Cuthbert's Church, Manaia
Folio	4381
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 June 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Swainson, Church of England

24 June 1925

Hubert Harry Mead
Margaret Campbell

Hubert Harry Mead
Margaret Campbell
💍 1925/4601

Stanley Charles Mackay
Margaret Campbell
💍 1926/2984

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
32

Manaia
Manaia

5 years
28 years

Presbyterian Church, Manaia

4382

24 June 1925

Rev. J. D. Smith, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	24 June 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Harry Mead	Margaret Campbell
	💍 1925/4601
BDM Match (64%)	Stanley Charles Mackay	Margaret Campbell
	💍 1926/2984
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	32
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Manaia
Length of Residence	5 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Manaia
Folio	4382
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. D. Smith, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).