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 961

District of Inglewood Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. Harvey

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

5 January 1916

Joseph Michael Drovdzki
Edna Middlemiss

Joseph Michael Dravitzki
Edna Middlemiss
💍 1916/3385

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

31
19

Ratapiko
Inglewood

31 years
6 months

Roman Catholic Church Inglewood

306

Emily Middlemiss, mother

Rev. E. Long, Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Michael Drovdzki	Edna Middlemiss
BDM Match (94%)	Joseph Michael Dravitzki	Edna Middlemiss
	💍 1916/3385
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Ratapiko	Inglewood
Length of Residence	31 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Inglewood
Folio	306
Consent	Emily Middlemiss, mother
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Long, Roman Catholic

7 January 1916

Arthur William Jones
Augusta Elizabeth Reckleben

Arthur William Jones
Agusta Elizabeth Reckleben
💍 1916/3386

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

26
24

Inglewood
Inglewood

3 days
3 days

Roman Catholic Church Inglewood

307

7 January 1916

Rev. E. Long, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	7 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur William Jones	Augusta Elizabeth Reckleben
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur William Jones	Agusta Elizabeth Reckleben
	💍 1916/3386
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Inglewood	Inglewood
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Inglewood
Folio	307
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Long, Roman Catholic

2 February 1916

Arthur Lander
Ada Mildred Spurdle

Arthur Lander
Ada Mildred Spurdle
💍 1916/3384

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter & Joiner
Clerk

24
22

Inglewood
Inglewood

7 days
22 years

Residence S. O. Spurdle, Inglewood

305

2 February 1916

Rev. J. Featherston, Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	2 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lander	Ada Mildred Spurdle
	💍 1916/3384
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter & Joiner	Clerk
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Inglewood	Inglewood
Length of Residence	7 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence S. O. Spurdle, Inglewood
Folio	305
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Featherston, Methodist

15 February 1916

William Castle Burn
Hannah Elizabeth Sutherland

William Castle Burn
Hannah Elizabeth Sutherland
💍 1916/3383

Bachelor
Spinster

Sugar Chemist
Domestic

39
25

Inglewood
Inglewood

5 days
5 days

Methodist Church Inglewood

304

15 February 1916

Rev. J. Featherston, Methodist

No	4
Date of Notice	15 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Castle Burn	Hannah Elizabeth Sutherland
	💍 1916/3383
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sugar Chemist	Domestic
Age	39	25
Dwelling Place	Inglewood	Inglewood
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Inglewood
Folio	304
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Featherston, Methodist

18 February 1916

Marmaduke Matthews
Elizabeth Vickers

Marmaduke Matthews
Elizabeth Vickers
💍 1916/3315

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

29
23

Rangiriri
Inglewood

23 years

Registrar's Office Auckland

183

18 February 1916

Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages Auckland

No	5
Date of Notice	18 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Marmaduke Matthews	Elizabeth Vickers
	💍 1916/3315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Rangiriri	Inglewood
Length of Residence		23 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Auckland
Folio	183
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages Auckland

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).