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 1307

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar John 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

02 October 1915

Andrew Grant Hart
Florence Emily Margaret Clark

Andrew Grant Hart
Florence Emily Margaret Clark
💍 1915/63

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Cook

28
25

Waipawa
Waipawa

4 days
6 months

at the office of the Registrar, Waipawa

9069

02 October 1915

Registrar, Waipawa

No	20
Date of Notice	02 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Grant Hart	Florence Emily Margaret Clark
	💍 1915/63
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Cook
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	4 days	6 months
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar, Waipawa
Folio	9069
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar, Waipawa

05 October 1915

Walter O'Reilly
Lillian Myra Street

Walter O'Reilly
Lillian Myra Street
💍 1915/6665

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

30
23

Waipawa
Waipawa

4 days
3 weeks

Roman Catholic Church, Waipawa

9073

05 October 1915

Rev. E. Bergin

No	21
Date of Notice	05 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter O'Reilly	Lillian Myra Street
	💍 1915/6665
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	4 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Waipawa
Folio	9073
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Bergin

20 October 1915

Ernest Edward Oakenfull
Gertrude Lily Bedingfield

Ernest Edward Oakenfull
Gertrude Lilly Bedingfield
💍 1915/6643

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotelkeeper
Domestic

30
24

Waipawa
Waipawa

17 months
15 months

St Peters Church Waipawa

9075

20 October 1915

Rev. J. C. Cullwick

No	22
Date of Notice	20 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edward Oakenfull	Gertrude Lily Bedingfield
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Edward Oakenfull	Gertrude Lilly Bedingfield
	💍 1915/6643
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotelkeeper	Domestic
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	17 months	15 months
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Waipawa
Folio	9075
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Cullwick

22 October 1915

John Gilbert Brotherton
Annie Coe

John Gilbert Bretherton
Annie Coe
💍 1915/6642

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Tailoress

25
26

Waipawa
Waipawa

3 years
16 years

St Patricks Church Waipawa

9074

22 October 1915

Rev. E. Bergin

No	23
Date of Notice	22 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gilbert Brotherton	Annie Coe
BDM Match (98%)	John Gilbert Bretherton	Annie Coe
	💍 1915/6642
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Tailoress
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	3 years	16 years
Marriage Place	St Patricks Church Waipawa
Folio	9074
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Bergin

26 October 1915

Thomas George Thompson
Eliza May Verran

Thomas George Thomson
Eliza May Verran
💍 1915/7186

Thomas George Thomson
Eliza May Thomson Verran
💍 1916/5367

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Waitress

26
21

Waipawa
Waipawa

1 month
10 years

Church of England Otane

9600

26 October 1915

Rev. G. W. Davidson

No	24
Date of Notice	26 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Thompson	Eliza May Verran
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas George Thomson	Eliza May Verran
	💍 1915/7186
BDM Match (81%)	Thomas George Thomson	Eliza May Thomson Verran
	💍 1916/5367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Waitress
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	1 month	10 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Otane
Folio	9600
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Davidson

26 October 1915

John William Chapman
Mary Mundell

John William Chapman
Mary Mundell
💍 1915/6648

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic

26
28

Waipawa
Waipawa

9 years
2 weeks

St Patricks Church Waipawa

9080

26 October 1915

Rev. E. Bergin

No	25
Date of Notice	26 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Chapman	Mary Mundell
	💍 1915/6648
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	9 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St Patricks Church Waipawa
Folio	9080
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Bergin

02 November 1915

Edward Breadalbane Campbell
Mary Jane McLeod

Edward Breadalbane Campbell
Mary Jane McLeod
💍 1915/6664

Bachelor
Spinster

Gasfitter
Domestic

23
22

Argyll East
Argyll East

4 days
21 years

at the residence of Donald Roderick McLeod, Argyll East

9072

02 November 1915

Rev. J. D. Smith

No	26
Date of Notice	02 November 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Breadalbane Campbell	Mary Jane McLeod
	💍 1915/6664
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gasfitter	Domestic
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Argyll East	Argyll East
Length of Residence	4 days	21 years
Marriage Place	at the residence of Donald Roderick McLeod, Argyll East
Folio	9072
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 November 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. D. Smith

06 November 1915

Frederick Foulkes
Lillian Wallis

Frederick Foulkes
Lillian Wallis
💍 1915/6662

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Dressmaker

28
28

Waipawa
Waipawa

7 days
3 days

at the office of the Registrar, Waipawa

9070

06 November 1915

R. Cox, Deputy Registrar

No	27
Date of Notice	06 November 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Foulkes	Lillian Wallis
	💍 1915/6662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Dressmaker
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	7 days	3 days
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar, Waipawa
Folio	9070
Consent
Date of Certificate	06 November 1915
Officiating Minister	R. Cox, Deputy 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).