Intentions to Marry, 1915 Aria to Masterton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840459, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1915 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1915c contains pages 1021-1500, covering districts from Aria to Masterton

Page 1127

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar S. H. James

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

6 April 1915

Ernest Hart Allen
Mary Elizabeth Schaffer

Ernest Hart Allen
Mary Elizabeth Schaffer
💍 1915/1492

Bachelor
Widow

Carpenter

45
35

Mangatoki
Patea

8 years
4 years

Residence of J. Marra, Pembroke road, Stratford

3387

6 April 1915

A. Reader, Methodist

No	10
Date of Notice	6 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Hart Allen	Mary Elizabeth Schaffer
	💍 1915/1492
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Carpenter
Age	45	35
Dwelling Place	Mangatoki	Patea
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Marra, Pembroke road, Stratford
Folio	3387
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1915
Officiating Minister	A. Reader, Methodist

7 April 1915

Hugh Campbell Fletcher
Laura Mary Reader

Hugh Campbell Fletcher
Laura Mary Reader
💍 1915/1494

Bachelor
Spinster

Examiner Audit Office

24
25

Auckland
Stratford

24 years
15 years

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

3389

7 April 1915

C. W. Howard, Church of England

No	11
Date of Notice	7 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Campbell Fletcher	Laura Mary Reader
	💍 1915/1494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Examiner Audit Office
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Stratford
Length of Residence	24 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	3389
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1915
Officiating Minister	C. W. Howard, Church of England

9 April 1915

John Craig Burns
Lillian Cecilia Geddeson

John Craig Burns
Lilian Cecilia Geddeson
💍 1915/1500

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

32
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

32 years
23 years

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

3377

9 April 1915

S. H. James, Registrar

No	12
Date of Notice	9 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Craig Burns	Lillian Cecilia Geddeson
BDM Match (98%)	John Craig Burns	Lilian Cecilia Geddeson
	💍 1915/1500
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	32 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	3377
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1915
Officiating Minister	S. H. James, Registrar

12 April 1915

Vivian Smith
Muriel Elizabeth Stronach

Vivian Smith
Muriel Elizabeth Stonach
💍 1915/1495

Vivian Smith
Amy Blanche Avison
💍 1916/3437

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
29

Taihape
Stratford

2 1/2 years
2 months

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford

3390

12 April 1915

C. W. Howard, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	12 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vivian Smith	Muriel Elizabeth Stronach
BDM Match (98%)	Vivian Smith	Muriel Elizabeth Stonach
	💍 1915/1495
BDM Match (60%)	Vivian Smith	Amy Blanche Avison
	💍 1916/3437
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Stratford
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
Folio	3390
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1915
Officiating Minister	C. W. Howard, Church of England

17 April 1915

Ernest William Gibbs
Irene May Susans

Ernest William Gibbs
Irene May Susans
💍 1915/1490

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
24

Norfolk road
Cardiff

3 years
12 years

Roman Catholic Church, Stratford

3385

17 April 1915

F. G. Maples, Roman Catholic

No	14
Date of Notice	17 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Gibbs	Irene May Susans
	💍 1915/1490
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Norfolk road	Cardiff
Length of Residence	3 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Stratford
Folio	3385
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1915
Officiating Minister	F. G. Maples, 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).

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).