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 1419

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar Charles Christian Halliday

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

12 March 1915

Cecil James Bennett
Ada Ann Burnham
formerly Wratt

Cecil James Bennett
Ada Ann Burnham
💍 1915/458

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer
Home duties

28
31

Feilding
Feilding

28 years
30 years

Baptist Church, Bowen St, Feilding

1066

12 March 1915

Pastor E Nicholls

No	13
Date of Notice	12 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil James Bennett	Ada Ann Burnham formerly Wratt
	💍 1915/458
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	28 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Bowen St, Feilding
Folio	1066
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Pastor E Nicholls

22 March 1915

Edward George Taylor
Jessie May Bismark

Edward George Taylor
Jessie May Bismark
💍 1915/456

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
18

Cunninghams
Cunninghams

5 years
11 years

Church of England, Feilding

1064

Frederick William Bismark, Father

22 March 1915

Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

No	14
Date of Notice	22 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward George Taylor	Jessie May Bismark
	💍 1915/456
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Cunninghams	Cunninghams
Length of Residence	5 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Feilding
Folio	1064
Consent	Frederick William Bismark, Father
Date of Certificate	22 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

22 March 1915

George Henry Lankshear
Kathleen Bronfeldt

George Henry Lankshear
Kathleen Crenfeldt
💍 1915/12934

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
19

Colyton
Feilding

38 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Feilding

1063

William Bronfeldt, Father

22 March 1915

Rev. G. Budd

No	15
Date of Notice	22 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Lankshear	Kathleen Bronfeldt
BDM Match (94%)	George Henry Lankshear	Kathleen Crenfeldt
	💍 1915/12934
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	19
Dwelling Place	Colyton	Feilding
Length of Residence	38 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Feilding
Folio	1063
Consent	William Bronfeldt, Father
Date of Certificate	22 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Budd

22 March 1915

James Simpson
Ivy Myrtle Reid

James Simpson
Ivy Myrtle Reid
💍 1915/463

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
21

Feilding
Makino

27 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Feilding

1070

22 March 1915

Rev. G. Budd

No	16
Date of Notice	22 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Simpson	Ivy Myrtle Reid
	💍 1915/463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Makino
Length of Residence	27 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Feilding
Folio	1070
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Budd

31 March 1915

Ernest Samuel Fisher
Violet Winnifred Jefferies

Ernest Samuel Fisher
Violet Winnifred Jefferies
💍 1915/464

Bachelor
Spinster

Flour-miller
Household duties

25
23

Colyton
Taonui

25 years
23 years

H. G. Jefferies Residence, Taonui

1071

31 March 1915

Rev. G. Budd

No	17
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Samuel Fisher	Violet Winnifred Jefferies
	💍 1915/464
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Flour-miller	Household duties
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Colyton	Taonui
Length of Residence	25 years	23 years
Marriage Place	H. G. Jefferies Residence, Taonui
Folio	1071
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Budd

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).