Intentions to Marry, 1926 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840538, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1926 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.

1926c contains pages 947-1388, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1077

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1926 Registrar H. R. Bush

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

27 May 1926

Walter Eli Gorbey
Ivy Reid

Walter Eli Gorbey
Ivy Reid
💍 1926/4442

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

27
22

Thames
Thames

27 years
22 years

Church of Christ, Thames

4563

27 May 1926

Rev. Herbert Langford, Church of Christ

No	34
Date of Notice	27 May 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Eli Gorbey	Ivy Reid
	💍 1926/4442
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	27 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Thames
Folio	4563
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 May 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Herbert Langford, Church of Christ

29 May 1926

Victor Hoyle
Lucy Jessie Brake

Victor Hoyle
Lucy Leonie Crake
💍 1926/4443

Bachelor
Widow

Sawmiller
Domestic duties

25
25

Thames
Thames

18 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Thames

4564

29 May 1926

H. R. Bush, Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	29 May 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Hoyle	Lucy Jessie Brake
BDM Match (88%)	Victor Hoyle	Lucy Leonie Crake
	💍 1926/4443
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Sawmiller	Domestic duties
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	18 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Thames
Folio	4564
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1926
Officiating Minister	H. R. Bush, Registrar

31 May 1926

George Mitchell
Ellen Louisa Wilton

George Mitchell
Ellen Louisa Hilton
💍 1926/4444

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil servant
Laundress

26
22

Hamilton
Thames

-
22 years

Baptist Church, Thames

4565

31 May 1926

Rev. W. E. Lambert, Baptist

No	36
Date of Notice	31 May 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Mitchell	Ellen Louisa Wilton
BDM Match (97%)	George Mitchell	Ellen Louisa Hilton
	💍 1926/4444
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil servant	Laundress
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Hamilton	Thames
Length of Residence	-	22 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Thames
Folio	4565
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Lambert, Baptist

2 June 1926

Leonard Le Noel
Rosina Valentine Sear

Leonard Le Noel
Rosina Valentine Lear
💍 1926/4445

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

40
31

Orongo, Turua
Orongo, Turua

6 years
6 months

Office of the Registrar of Marriage, Thames

4566

2 June 1926

H. R. Bush, Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	2 June 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Le Noel	Rosina Valentine Sear
BDM Match (98%)	Leonard Le Noel	Rosina Valentine Lear
	💍 1926/4445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	40	31
Dwelling Place	Orongo, Turua	Orongo, Turua
Length of Residence	6 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriage, Thames
Folio	4566
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 June 1926
Officiating Minister	H. R. Bush, Registrar

5 June 1926

Harry George Wickinson
Jane Milligan Johnston

Harry George Wilkinson
Jane Milligan Johnston
💍 1926/4446

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic servant

29
20

Thames
Thames

2 weeks
15 months

Baptist Church, Thames

4567

Hugh Johnston, father

6 June 1926

Rev. Lambert, Baptist

No	38
Date of Notice	5 June 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry George Wickinson	Jane Milligan Johnston
BDM Match (98%)	Harry George Wilkinson	Jane Milligan Johnston
	💍 1926/4446
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic servant
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	2 weeks	15 months
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Thames
Folio	4567
Consent	Hugh Johnston, father
Date of Certificate	6 June 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Lambert, Baptist

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).