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 1377

District of Hastings Quarter ending 31 March 1927 Registrar R. Braithwaite

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

3 January 1927

Bernard David Mills
Juanita Ely O'neill

Bernard David Mills
Juanita Ely O'Neill
💍 1927/1939

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
24

Hastings
Hastings

7 years
11 years

Sacred Heart Church, Hastings

1795

3 January 1927

Father Tymons, Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard David Mills	Juanita Ely O'neill
BDM Match (97%)	Bernard David Mills	Juanita Ely O'Neill
	💍 1927/1939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	7 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, Hastings
Folio	1795
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Father Tymons, Roman Catholic

4 January 1927

William Alan Bertie Goodwin
Dora May Simmons

William Alan Bertie Goodwin
Dora May Simmins
💍 1927/1940

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster
Domestic duties

23
20

Poukawa
Mangakahi

3 years
15 years

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

1796

Henry Edward Simmons (father)

4 January 1927

Rev. J. N. T. Thompson, Anglican

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alan Bertie Goodwin	Dora May Simmons
BDM Match (97%)	William Alan Bertie Goodwin	Dora May Simmins
	💍 1927/1940
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster	Domestic duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Poukawa	Mangakahi
Length of Residence	3 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	1796
Consent	Henry Edward Simmons (father)
Date of Certificate	4 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. N. T. Thompson, Anglican

5 January 1927

Frank Pepper
Mary Isabell Vercoe

Frank Pepper
Mary Isabell Vercoe
💍 1927/1941

Bachelor
Divorced (decree absolute 27 February 1926)

Barman
Domestic duties

27
30

Waipukurau
Hastings

4 months
7 months

Registrars office, Hastings

1797

5 January 1927

Robert Braithwaite, Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	5 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Pepper	Mary Isabell Vercoe
	💍 1927/1941
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (decree absolute 27 February 1926)
Profession	Barman	Domestic duties
Age	27	30
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Hastings
Length of Residence	4 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Registrars office, Hastings
Folio	1797
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Robert Braithwaite, Registrar

7 January 1927

Henry Harrington Lister
Ethel Streeton

Henry Harrington Lister
Ethel Stretton
💍 1927/1942

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

30
24

Clive
Havelock North

30 years
2 years

St. Lukes Church, Havelock North

1798

7 January 1927

Rev. Canon T. Fear, Anglican

No	4
Date of Notice	7 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Harrington Lister	Ethel Streeton
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Harrington Lister	Ethel Stretton
	💍 1927/1942
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Clive	Havelock North
Length of Residence	30 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Lukes Church, Havelock North
Folio	1798
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon T. Fear, Anglican

17 January 1927

Leo Reginald Murdock Robinson
Mary Elsie Eileen Bulling

Leo Reginald Murdock Robinson
Mary Elsie Eileen Culling
💍 1927/1950

Bachelor
Spinster

House furniture
Domestic duties

27
26

Hastings
Waipukurau

4 years
25 years

Roman Catholic Church, Waipukurau

1799

17 January 1927

Rev. Father McDonald, Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	17 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Reginald Murdock Robinson	Mary Elsie Eileen Bulling
BDM Match (98%)	Leo Reginald Murdock Robinson	Mary Elsie Eileen Culling
	💍 1927/1950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	House furniture	Domestic duties
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	4 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Waipukurau
Folio	1799
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father McDonald, 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).