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 1217

District of Eltham Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar D. McBready

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

8 January 1926

Charles Esplin Lamond
Annie Jane Nielson

Charles Esplin Lamond
Annie Jane Nielson
💍 1926/2056

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor
Domestic duties

41
48

Eltham
Eltham

9 years
24 years

Residence of Mrs. Nielson, No. 1 Moir Street, Eltham

1934

8 January 1926

Rev. E. J. Orange, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Esplin Lamond	Annie Jane Nielson
	💍 1926/2056
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor	Domestic duties
Age	41	48
Dwelling Place	Eltham	Eltham
Length of Residence	9 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Nielson, No. 1 Moir Street, Eltham
Folio	1934
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. J. Orange, Presbyterian

28 January 1926

Laurence Watchorn
Ruth Pennington

Laurence Watchorn
Ruth Pennington
💍 1926/2057

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

33
30

Eltham
Eltham

2 months
16 years

Registrar's Office, Eltham

1936

5 February 1926

David McBready, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	28 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Watchorn	Ruth Pennington
	💍 1926/2057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	33	30
Dwelling Place	Eltham	Eltham
Length of Residence	2 months	16 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Eltham
Folio	1936
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1926
Officiating Minister	David McBready, Registrar

30 January 1926

Eric Lucas Goodacre
Hazel Isabell Clark

Eric Lucas Goodacre
Hazel Isabell Clarke
💍 1926/2058

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

30
25

Mangatoki
Eltham

5 years
Life

All Saints Church, Eltham

1937

2 February 1926

Rev. C. A. Isaacson, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	30 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Lucas Goodacre	Hazel Isabell Clark
BDM Match (98%)	Eric Lucas Goodacre	Hazel Isabell Clarke
	💍 1926/2058
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Mangatoki	Eltham
Length of Residence	5 years	Life
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Eltham
Folio	1937
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Isaacson, Church of England

16 February 1926

Francis Montcur Jones
Florrie Weir

Francis Montcur Jones
Florrie Weir
💍 1926/2059

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

27
21

Eltham
Eltham

1 day
3 days

All Saints Church, Eltham

1938

16 February 1926

Rev. C. A. Isaacson, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	16 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Montcur Jones	Florrie Weir
	💍 1926/2059
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Eltham	Eltham
Length of Residence	1 day	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Eltham
Folio	1938
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Isaacson, Church of England

23 February 1926

Arthur Stanley Jenkins
Rose Marshall

Arthur Stanley Jenkins
Rose Marshall
💍 1926/2060

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Salvation Army Officer

39
40

Eltham
Eltham

10 years
3 years

Salvation Army Boy's Home, Eltham

1939

23 February 1926

Alexander Armstrong, Salvation Army

No	5
Date of Notice	23 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Stanley Jenkins	Rose Marshall
	💍 1926/2060
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Salvation Army Officer
Age	39	40
Dwelling Place	Eltham	Eltham
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Boy's Home, Eltham
Folio	1939
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Alexander Armstrong, Salvation Army

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).