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 1217

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 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

16 February 1915

William Lord
Hilda Scott

William Lord
Hilda Scott
💍 1915/7748

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Cook

33
32

Okawa
Okawa

2 years
2 years

Anglican Church, Clive

952

16 February 1915

Rev. J. A. Lush, Church of England

No	33
Date of Notice	16 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lord	Hilda Scott
	💍 1915/7748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Cook
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Okawa	Okawa
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Clive
Folio	952
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Lush, Church of England

17 February 1915

Horace Spence Bottrell
Violet May Grainger

Horace Spence Cottrell
Violet May Grainger
💍 1915/7724

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Domestic Duties

28
27

Napier
Napier

20 years
4 years

St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, Napier

995

17 February 1915

Rev. F. Tucker, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	17 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Spence Bottrell	Violet May Grainger
BDM Match (98%)	Horace Spence Cottrell	Violet May Grainger
	💍 1915/7724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Domestic Duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	20 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, Napier
Folio	995
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. Tucker, Presbyterian

17 February 1915

Douglas Victor Percy Walker
Doris Muriel Hardley

Douglas Victor Percy Walker
Doris Muriel Hardley
💍 1915/7753

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi driver
Domestic Duties

24
19

Napier
Napier

12 months
5 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier

974

Mary Jane Hardley, mother

17 February 1915

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	17 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Victor Percy Walker	Doris Muriel Hardley
	💍 1915/7753
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi driver	Domestic Duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	12 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier
Folio	974
Consent	Mary Jane Hardley, mother
Date of Certificate	17 February 1915
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

19 February 1915

Frederick William Johnson
Annie Edwards

Frederick William Johnson
Annie Edwards
💍 1915/8809

David William Sutherland
Annie Edwards
💍 1916/4211

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Hand
Domestic

31
27

Matapiro
Fernhill

12 months
3 months

Church of England, Fernhill

1001

19 February 1915

Rev. P. C. Davis, Church of England

No	36
Date of Notice	19 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Johnson	Annie Edwards
	💍 1915/8809
BDM Match (68%)	David William Sutherland	Annie Edwards
	💍 1916/4211
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Hand	Domestic
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Matapiro	Fernhill
Length of Residence	12 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Fernhill
Folio	1001
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. C. Davis, Church of England

20 February 1915

Albert George Boughtrey
Molly Henry

Albert George Coughtrey
Molly Ellena Henry
💍 1915/7734

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook
Waitress

25
19

Napier
Napier

8 months
19 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier

982

No one in Dominion to give consent

6 March 1915

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	20 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Boughtrey	Molly Henry
BDM Match (78%)	Albert George Coughtrey	Molly Ellena Henry
	💍 1915/7734
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook	Waitress
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	8 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier
Folio	982
Consent	No one in Dominion to give consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 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).