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 1015

District of Opunake Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar W. G. Thompson

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

27 January 1916

Alfred Harrison
Annie Lauder

Moses Marriner
Annie Lauder
💍 1916/8695

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Machinist

21
22

Opunake
Te Kiri

1 month
1 month

Church of England, Te Kiri

357

27 January 1916

Rev O. W. B. Trent, Anglican

No	1
Date of Notice	27 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Harrison	Annie Lauder
BDM Match (70%)	Moses Marriner	Annie Lauder
	💍 1916/8695
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Machinist
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Te Kiri
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Church of England, Te Kiri
Folio	357
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev O. W. B. Trent, Anglican

7 February 1916

Frank Neumann
Edith Ellen Briscoe

Frank Neumann
Edith Ellen Briscoe
💍 1916/8691

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
19

Oaonui
Oaonui

4 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Opunake

353

Albert William Briscoe, Father

7 February 1916

W. G. Thompson, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Neumann	Edith Ellen Briscoe
	💍 1916/8691
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Oaonui	Oaonui
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Opunake
Folio	353
Consent	Albert William Briscoe, Father
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	W. G. Thompson, Registrar

12 February 1916

William Harold Sutton
Christina Eve Holmes

William Harold Sutton
Christina Eve Holmes
💍 1916/8694

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
22

Rahotu
Rahotu

3 months
life

Church of England, Opunake

356

12 February 1916

Rev O. W. B. Trent, Anglican

No	3
Date of Notice	12 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Harold Sutton	Christina Eve Holmes
	💍 1916/8694
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Rahotu	Rahotu
Length of Residence	3 months	life
Marriage Place	Church of England, Opunake
Folio	356
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev O. W. B. Trent, Anglican

7 March 1916

Arthur Herbert Henderson
Ida May Hogan Coffer

Arthur Herbert Henderson
Ina May Morgan Coffin
💍 1916/8692

Widower
Widow

Professor of [illegible]
Domestic duties

41
39

Opunake
Te Kiri

6 months
5 years

Registrar's Office, Opunake

354

7 March 1916

W. G. Thompson, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	7 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Herbert Henderson	Ida May Hogan Coffer
BDM Match (88%)	Arthur Herbert Henderson	Ina May Morgan Coffin
	💍 1916/8692
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Professor of [illegible]	Domestic duties
Age	41	39
Dwelling Place	Opunake	Te Kiri
Length of Residence	6 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Opunake
Folio	354
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1916
Officiating Minister	W. G. Thompson, Registrar

23 March 1916

Emanuel George Holmes
Florence May Sutton

Emanuel George Holmes
Florence May Sutton
💍 1916/8693

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
18

Oaonui
Oaonui

4 years
4 years

At the house of H. Sutton, Oaonui

355

Hardy Sutton, Father

29 March 1916

Rev J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	23 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Emanuel George Holmes	Florence May Sutton
	💍 1916/8693
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Oaonui	Oaonui
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	At the house of H. Sutton, Oaonui
Folio	355
Consent	Hardy Sutton, Father
Date of Certificate	29 March 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Kelly, Roman Catholic

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).