Intentions to Marry, 1913 Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840452, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 227

District of Foxton Quarter ending 31 December 1913 Registrar Williams

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

29 November 1913

Arthur Joseph Baker
Agnes Maud Walker

Arthur Joseph Baker
Agnes Maud Walter
💍 1913/7673

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

34
32

Christchurch
Feilding

3 days
3 days

Residence of Mr Chas Bull, Aorangi

13/7436

29 November 1913

Rev Arthur Anstice

No	51
Date of Notice	29 November 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Joseph Baker	Agnes Maud Walker
BDM Match (97%)	Arthur Joseph Baker	Agnes Maud Walter
	💍 1913/7673
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Chas Bull, Aorangi
Folio	13/7436
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev Arthur Anstice

9 December 1913

William Copland Alexander
Winifred Ethel Kiernan

William Copland Alexander
Winifred Ethel Kiernan
💍 1913/7818

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Typiste

32
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Church of England, Feilding

7632

9 December 1913

Rev Innes Jones

No	52
Date of Notice	9 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Copland Alexander	Winifred Ethel Kiernan
	💍 1913/7818
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Typiste
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	7632
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev Innes Jones

15 December 1913

Donald William Fraser
Marion Beasley Gould

Donald William Fraser
Marion Beasley Gould
💍 1913/7670

Bachelor
Spinster

Company Manager

27
24

Feilding
Feilding

5 years
24 years

Primitive Methodist Church, Manchester Street, Feilding

13/7434

15 December 1913

Rev P.W. Jones

No	53
Date of Notice	15 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald William Fraser	Marion Beasley Gould
	💍 1913/7670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Company Manager
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	5 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Manchester Street, Feilding
Folio	13/7434
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev P.W. Jones

17 December 1913

Hart Samuel Bennett
Margaret Bennett

Hart Samuel Bennett
Margaret Bennett
💍 1913/13

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

28
22

Feilding
Feilding

25 years
6 months

Primitive Methodist Church, Manchester Street, Feilding

13/7435

17 December 1913

Rev P.W. Jones

No	54
Date of Notice	17 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hart Samuel Bennett	Margaret Bennett
	💍 1913/13
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	25 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Church, Manchester Street, Feilding
Folio	13/7435
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev P.W. Jones

22 December 1913

David William Fraser
Florence Emily Dove

Bachelor
Spinster

Groom

22
19

Feilding
Feilding

6 years
1 year

Church of England, Feilding

13/7440

Certificate not yet issued

No	55
Date of Notice	22 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David William Fraser	Florence Emily Dove
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	13/7440
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Certificate not yet issued

29 December 1913

William Ewart Caldow
Ada Catherine Mace

William Ewart Caldon
Ada Catherine Mace
💍 1913/9014

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

29
26

Wellington
Feilding

3 days
3 weeks

Residence of Mr Ernest Bassett, Giesens Road, Feilding

8717

29 December 1913

Rev George Budd

No	56
Date of Notice	29 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ewart Caldow	Ada Catherine Mace
BDM Match (98%)	William Ewart Caldon	Ada Catherine Mace
	💍 1913/9014
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Ernest Bassett, Giesens Road, Feilding
Folio	8717
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev George Budd

30 December 1913

Percy Reeve
Julia Zimmerman

Percy Reeve
Julia Zimmerman
💍 1914/7755

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

21
23

Feilding
Palmerston North

6 months
6 months

Roman Catholic Church, Palmerston North

13/156

30 December 1913

Rev J McManus

No	57
Date of Notice	30 December 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Reeve	Julia Zimmerman
	💍 1914/7755
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Palmerston North
Folio	13/156
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev J McManus

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).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

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).