Intentions to Marry, 1916 Aria to Masterton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840465, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1916 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.

1916c contains pages 931-1380, covering districts from Aria to Masterton

Page 955

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar W. Callaghan

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

3 July 1916

Thomas Dermot Walsh
Margaret Mary Shaw

Thomas Dermot Walsh
Margaret May Shaw
💍 1916/7921

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist
Domestic Duties

22
21

Hawera
Hawera

4 years
1 year

Roman Catholic Church Hawera

5578

4 July 1916

P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

No	23
Date of Notice	3 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Dermot Walsh	Margaret Mary Shaw
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Dermot Walsh	Margaret May Shaw
	💍 1916/7921
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist	Domestic Duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Hawera
Folio	5578
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1916
Officiating Minister	P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

10 July 1916

Neils Peter Lawson
Ida Mary Paine

Neil Peter Lawson
Ida May Paine
💍 1916/7911

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Domestic Duties

26
22

Normanby
Normanby

7 days
22 years

Church of England Hawera

5569

10 July 1916

C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

No	24
Date of Notice	10 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neils Peter Lawson	Ida Mary Paine
BDM Match (94%)	Neil Peter Lawson	Ida May Paine
	💍 1916/7911
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Domestic Duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Normanby	Normanby
Length of Residence	7 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Hawera
Folio	5569
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1916
Officiating Minister	C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

17 July 1916

Sydney Madgwick
Isabella Griffiths

Sydney Madgwick
Isabella Griffiths
💍 1916/7920

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

38
44

Normanby
Normanby

12 months
4 months

Registrar's Office Hawera

5577

17 July 1916

W. Callaghan, Registrar

No	25
Date of Notice	17 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Madgwick	Isabella Griffiths
	💍 1916/7920
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	38	44
Dwelling Place	Normanby	Normanby
Length of Residence	12 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hawera
Folio	5577
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1916
Officiating Minister	W. Callaghan, Registrar

25 July 1916

Benjamin Lawrence Martin
Janet Priscilla Dick

Benjamin Lawrence Martis
Janet Priscilla Dick
💍 1916/7918

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman
Domestic Duties

26
24

Hawera
Hawera

9 months
13 months

Methodist Parsonage Hawera

5575

25 July 1916

F. E. Blamires, Methodist

No	26
Date of Notice	25 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Lawrence Martin	Janet Priscilla Dick
BDM Match (98%)	Benjamin Lawrence Martis	Janet Priscilla Dick
	💍 1916/7918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman	Domestic Duties
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	9 months	13 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage Hawera
Folio	5575
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1916
Officiating Minister	F. E. Blamires, Methodist

25 July 1916

Arthur Douglas Johnson
Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt

Arthur Douglas Johnson
Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt
💍 1916/7919

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

38
32

Lowgarth
Hawera

17 years
1 month

Residence of James Moffitt, Furniture Road, Hawera

5576

25 July 1916

J. R. Shore, Presbyterian

No	27
Date of Notice	25 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Douglas Johnson	Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt
	💍 1916/7919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	38	32
Dwelling Place	Lowgarth	Hawera
Length of Residence	17 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of James Moffitt, Furniture Road, Hawera
Folio	5576
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1916
Officiating Minister	J. R. Shore, Presbyterian

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).