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 1154

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar J. P. White

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

Thomas Desmond Donovan
Eva Isabella Litt

Thomas Desmond Donovan
Eva Isabella Litt
💍 1925/4454

Widower
Spinster

Master mariner
Domestic Duties

53
21

Whangarei
Whangarei

21 years
21 years

Registrar's Office Whangarei

4207

21 April 1925

A. Marshall, Registrar

No	31
Date of Notice	21 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Desmond Donovan	Eva Isabella Litt
	💍 1925/4454
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Master mariner	Domestic Duties
Age	53	21
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	21 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Whangarei
Folio	4207
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1925
Officiating Minister	A. Marshall, Registrar

22 April 1925

Arthur Briscoe Moore
Phyllis Felton Coates

Arthur Briscoe Moore
Phyllis Felton Coates
💍 1925/4455

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer
Domestic Duties

34
19

Moengawahine
Moengawahine

5 years
9 years

Church of England Whangarei

4208

William Martin Felton Coates, Father

22 April 1925

Rev. J. W. Edwards, Anglican

No	32
Date of Notice	22 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Briscoe Moore	Phyllis Felton Coates
	💍 1925/4455
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	34	19
Dwelling Place	Moengawahine	Moengawahine
Length of Residence	5 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Whangarei
Folio	4208
Consent	William Martin Felton Coates, Father
Date of Certificate	22 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Edwards, Anglican

24 April 1925

John Morrison
Molly Felton Coates

John Morrison
Molly Felton Coates
💍 1925/4456

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

40
20

Matapouri
Moengawahine

13 years
8 years

Church of England Whangarei

4209

William Martin Felton Coates, Father

24 April 1925

Rev. J. W. Edwards, Anglican

No	33
Date of Notice	24 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Morrison	Molly Felton Coates
	💍 1925/4456
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	40	20
Dwelling Place	Matapouri	Moengawahine
Length of Residence	13 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Whangarei
Folio	4209
Consent	William Martin Felton Coates, Father
Date of Certificate	24 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Edwards, Anglican

22 April 1925

Clyde Walter Vivian Urquhart
Irene Catherine Hunt

Clyde Walter Vivian Urquhart
Irene Catherine Hunt
💍 1925/4433

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Engineer
Saleswoman

24
22

Auckland
Whangarei

1 day
6 weeks

Presbyterian Church Whangarei

4210

22 April 1925

Rev. G. W. Lochore, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	22 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clyde Walter Vivian Urquhart	Irene Catherine Hunt
	💍 1925/4433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Engineer	Saleswoman
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Whangarei
Length of Residence	1 day	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Whangarei
Folio	4210
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Lochore, Presbyterian

24 April 1925

Hill Edwards
Mary Nathan

Hill Edwards
Mary Nathan
💍 1925/4434

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

23
16

Portland
Portland

23 years
16 years

Roman Catholic Church Whangarei

4211

Mary Nathan, Mother

24 April 1925

F. H. Campbell, Roman Catholic

No	35
Date of Notice	24 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hill Edwards	Mary Nathan
	💍 1925/4434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	23	16
Dwelling Place	Portland	Portland
Length of Residence	23 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Whangarei
Folio	4211
Consent	Mary Nathan, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 April 1925
Officiating Minister	F. H. Campbell, Roman Catholic

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).