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 1315

District of Waipukurau Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar D. Macdonald

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

17 October 1915

Charles Ryder
Julia Henrietta Olsen

Charles Ryder
Julia Henrietta Olsen
💍 1915/6649

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

25
23

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

3 years
20 years

Residence of Rev N. O. White Waipukurau

9081

17 October 1915

Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

No	12
Date of Notice	17 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ryder	Julia Henrietta Olsen
	💍 1915/6649
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev N. O. White Waipukurau
Folio	9081
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

8 November 1915

Frederick Thomas Quinlivan
Dora Veronica Kelleher

Frederick Thomas Quinlivan
Dora Veronica Kelleher
💍 1915/6647

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic
Domestic Duties

26
28

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

2 weeks
1 week

Roman Catholic Church Waipukurau

9079

8 November 1915

Father Bergen Roman Catholic

No	13
Date of Notice	8 November 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Thomas Quinlivan	Dora Veronica Kelleher
	💍 1915/6647
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic	Domestic Duties
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Waipukurau
Folio	9079
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1915
Officiating Minister	Father Bergen Roman Catholic

11 November 1915

James Preacher
Mabel Gardener

James Preacher
Mabel Gardner
💍 1915/6663

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Household

32
30

Waipukurau
Waipawa

1 year
3 months

Residence of Mrs Gardener Stanley Street Waipawa

9071

11 November 1915

Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	11 November 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Preacher	Mabel Gardener
BDM Match (96%)	James Preacher	Mabel Gardner
	💍 1915/6663
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Household
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipawa
Length of Residence	1 year	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Gardener Stanley Street Waipawa
Folio	9071
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

11 December 1915

Featherstone Phillipson
Olive Anna Penelope Janett

Featherstone Phillipson
Olive Anna Penelope Janett
💍 1915/6645

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Household

28
23

Hatuma
Hatuma

7 years
12 years

Residence of Mr Frederick Janett Hatuma

9077

11 December 1915

Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

No	15
Date of Notice	11 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Featherstone Phillipson	Olive Anna Penelope Janett
	💍 1915/6645
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Household
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Hatuma	Hatuma
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Frederick Janett Hatuma
Folio	9077
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev N. O. White Presbyterian

28 December 1915

William Shattock Jones
Ellen Sophia Stephenson

William Shattock Jones
Ellen Sophia Stephenson
💍 1915/7129

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

27
28

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

3 days
6 months

St Marys Church Waipukurau

9641

28 December 1915

Rev W. G. Williams Church of England

No	16
Date of Notice	28 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Shattock Jones	Ellen Sophia Stephenson
	💍 1915/7129
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St Marys Church Waipukurau
Folio	9641
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev W. G. Williams Church of England

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).