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 1409

District of Featherston Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar H. Dixon

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

1 April 1915

Richard Matthew Lange
Myrtle Edith Richardson Dukes

Richard Matthews Lange
Myrtle Edith Richardson
💍 1915/4521

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Household duties

24
25

Featherston
Wanganui

6 weeks
25 years

St Johns Anglican Church

6745

1 April 1915

Rev. H. Reeve, Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	1 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Matthew Lange	Myrtle Edith Richardson Dukes
BDM Match (87%)	Richard Matthews Lange	Myrtle Edith Richardson
	💍 1915/4521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Household duties
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Wanganui
Length of Residence	6 weeks	25 years
Marriage Place	St Johns Anglican Church
Folio	6745
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Reeve, Church of England

17 May 1915

John Cross
Inez Christina Fuge

John Cross
Inez Christiana Fuge
💍 1915/1717

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic duties

39
25

Kaiwaiwai
Kaiwaiwai

6 Months
25 years

Presbyterian Church Featherston

3589

17 May 1915

Rev. G. K. Stowell, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	17 May 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cross	Inez Christina Fuge
BDM Match (98%)	John Cross	Inez Christiana Fuge
	💍 1915/1717
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic duties
Age	39	25
Dwelling Place	Kaiwaiwai	Kaiwaiwai
Length of Residence	6 Months	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Featherston
Folio	3589
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 May 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Stowell, Presbyterian

12 May 1915

Harold Richard O'Neale
Theresa Ann Hodder

Harold Richard O'Neale
Theresa Ann Hodder
💍 1915/1714

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Domestic duties

33
22

Featherston
Featherston

33 years
22 years

English Church Featherston

3586

14 May 1915

Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	12 May 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Richard O'Neale	Theresa Ann Hodder
	💍 1915/1714
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Domestic duties
Age	33	22
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	33 years	22 years
Marriage Place	English Church Featherston
Folio	3586
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett, Church of England

14 June 1915

Eric Deane Russell
Margaretha Bertha Vogt

Eric Denne Russell
Margaretha Bertha Voyt
💍 1915/3383

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm hand
Domestic duties

25
28

South Featherston
South Featherston

4 years
3 months

Roman Catholic Church Featherston

5545

14 June 1915

Rev. T. Kinkead, Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	14 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Deane Russell	Margaretha Bertha Vogt
BDM Match (95%)	Eric Denne Russell	Margaretha Bertha Voyt
	💍 1915/3383
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm hand	Domestic duties
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	South Featherston	South Featherston
Length of Residence	4 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Featherston
Folio	5545
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Kinkead, Roman Catholic

28 June 1915

Reginald Arthur Otway
Mary McCallum

Reginald Arthur Otway
Mary McCallum
💍 1915/1713

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter
Waitress

22
24

Featherston
Featherston

4 months
6 months

St Johns English Church Featherston

3585

28 June 1915

Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	28 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Arthur Otway	Mary McCallum
	💍 1915/1713
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter	Waitress
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	4 months	6 months
Marriage Place	St Johns English Church Featherston
Folio	3585
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. S. Bartlett, 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).