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 1229

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar W. Buchanan

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

24 April 1915

Jerome Lloyd Knapp
Edith Airey Richardson

Jerome Lloyd Knapp
Edith Avey Richardson
💍 1915/10779

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

27
24

Napier
Greenmeadows

3 days
24 years

St. Augustine's Church, Napier

3463

24 April 1915

Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

No	89
Date of Notice	24 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jerome Lloyd Knapp	Edith Airey Richardson
BDM Match (95%)	Jerome Lloyd Knapp	Edith Avey Richardson
	💍 1915/10779
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Greenmeadows
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Napier
Folio	3463
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

29 April 1915

Francis Leonard Nockels
Winifred Wolfe

Francis Leonard Nockels
Winifred Wolfe
💍 1915/1640

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Lady Help

28
27

Napier
Napier

3 years
4 weeks

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier

3510

29 April 1915

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	90
Date of Notice	29 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Leonard Nockels	Winifred Wolfe
	💍 1915/1640
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Lady Help
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	4 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier
Folio	3510
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1915
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

3 May 1915

Frederick Fittis
Ellen Gilding (M.N. Stuart)

Frederick Fittis
Ellen Gilding
💍 1915/1619

Bachelor
Divorced 14 January 1915

Storeman
Dressmaker

35
37

Napier
Napier

3 years
4 years

Residence of Mrs. Stuart, Hardinge Road, Port Ahuriri

3464

3 May 1915

Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

No	91
Date of Notice	3 May 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Fittis	Ellen Gilding (M.N. Stuart)
BDM Match (74%)	Frederick Fittis	Ellen Gilding
	💍 1915/1619
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 14 January 1915
Profession	Storeman	Dressmaker
Age	35	37
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Stuart, Hardinge Road, Port Ahuriri
Folio	3464
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

5 May 1915

Henry John Sole
Daisy Laura Taylor

Henry John Sole
Daisy Laura Taylor
💍 1915/1650

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee
Lady Help

27
27

Napier
Napier

2 years
2 years

St. Patrick's Church, Napier

3502

5 May 1915

Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

No	92
Date of Notice	5 May 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry John Sole	Daisy Laura Taylor
	💍 1915/1650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee	Lady Help
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Napier
Folio	3502
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

13 May 1915

Frederick Christopher Wolstenholme
Christina Jessie Ferguson

Frederick Christopher Wolstenholme
Christina Jessie Ferguson
💍 1915/1641

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Stenographer

24
26

Napier
Napier

20 years
25 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier

3511

13 May 1915

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	93
Date of Notice	13 May 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Christopher Wolstenholme	Christina Jessie Ferguson
	💍 1915/1641
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Stenographer
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	20 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier
Folio	3511
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 May 1915
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

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).