Intentions to Marry, 1927 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840545, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1927 is bound in four volumes (a to d) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1927b contains pages 927-1804, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1049

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1927 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

17 May 1927

Edwin James Appleton
Rita White

Edwin James Appleton
Rita White
💍 1927/4275

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Tailoress

27
27

Thames
Thames

4 months
27 years

Presbyterian Church, Pollen Street, Thames

4331

17 May 1927

Rev. Lambert, Baptist

No	18
Date of Notice	17 May 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin James Appleton	Rita White
	💍 1927/4275
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Tailoress
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	4 months	27 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Pollen Street, Thames
Folio	4331
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 May 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. Lambert, Baptist

23 May 1927

Albert Chapman Burt
Eva McCord

Albert Chapman Burt
Eva McCoid
💍 1927/10665

Bachelor
Spinster

Dredgemaster
Domestic duties

21
16

Thames
Turua

20 years
16 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames

4332

Jessie Richard, Guardian of Eva McCord

23 May 1927

H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

No	19
Date of Notice	23 May 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Chapman Burt	Eva McCord
BDM Match (95%)	Albert Chapman Burt	Eva McCoid
	💍 1927/10665
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dredgemaster	Domestic duties
Age	21	16
Dwelling Place	Thames	Turua
Length of Residence	20 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames
Folio	4332
Consent	Jessie Richard, Guardian of Eva McCord
Date of Certificate	23 May 1927
Officiating Minister	H. R. Bush, Registrar of Marriages

27 May 1927

Charles Conrad Holbein
Jessie Margaret Smith

Charles Conrad Hohbein
Jessie Margaret Smith
💍 1927/4276

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine smith
Nurse

28
29

Kerepeehi
Ngatea

1 month
1 month

Methodist Church, Ngatea

4333

27 May 1927

Rev. Hall, Methodist

No	20
Date of Notice	27 May 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Conrad Holbein	Jessie Margaret Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Conrad Hohbein	Jessie Margaret Smith
	💍 1927/4276
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine smith	Nurse
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Kerepeehi	Ngatea
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Ngatea
Folio	4333
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 May 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. Hall, Methodist

27 May 1927

Denis James Patrick Dennehy
Isa Gubb

Denis James Patrick Dennehy
Ina Gubb
💍 1927/4277

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

23
24

Puriri
Thames

12 months
24 years

Baptist Manse, Sealey Street, Thames

4334

27 May 1927

Rev. Lambert, Baptist

No	21
Date of Notice	27 May 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis James Patrick Dennehy	Isa Gubb
BDM Match (94%)	Denis James Patrick Dennehy	Ina Gubb
	💍 1927/4277
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Puriri	Thames
Length of Residence	12 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Manse, Sealey Street, Thames
Folio	4334
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 May 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. Lambert, Baptist

31 May 1927

Leonard Daniel Bower
Violet May Sanning

Leonard Daniel Comer
Violet May Lanning
💍 1927/4278

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Tailoress

19
28

Thames
Thames

19 years
28 years

Residence of J. Sanning, Haren Street, Thames

4335

Leonard Bower and Lillian Grace Bower

31 May 1927

Rev. Lambert, Baptist

No	22
Date of Notice	31 May 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Daniel Bower	Violet May Sanning
BDM Match (92%)	Leonard Daniel Comer	Violet May Lanning
	💍 1927/4278
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Tailoress
Age	19	28
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	19 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Sanning, Haren Street, Thames
Folio	4335
Consent	Leonard Bower and Lillian Grace Bower
Date of Certificate	31 May 1927
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).