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 1041

District of Stratford Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar S. H. James

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 July 1916

Gordon Taylor Henry
Daisy Madford

Gordon Taylor Henry
Daisy Mudford
💍 1916/14430

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

24
21

Stratford
Stratford

22 years
3 years

Residence of Mrs Madford, Pembroke road, Stratford

5643

3 July 1916

J. H. G. Madill, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	1 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Taylor Henry	Daisy Madford
BDM Match (96%)	Gordon Taylor Henry	Daisy Mudford
	💍 1916/14430
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Stratford	Stratford
Length of Residence	22 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Madford, Pembroke road, Stratford
Folio	5643
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1916
Officiating Minister	J. H. G. Madill, Presbyterian

3 July 1916

Douglas Aubrey
Flora Alexandrina Morrison

Douglas Aubrey
Flora Alexandrina Morrison
💍 1916/14433

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
24

Waipawa
Whangamomona

3 years
6 months

Office of the Registrar at Stratford

5650

4 July 1916

S. H. James, Registrar

No	26
Date of Notice	3 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Aubrey	Flora Alexandrina Morrison
	💍 1916/14433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Whangamomona
Length of Residence	3 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar at Stratford
Folio	5650
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1916
Officiating Minister	S. H. James, Registrar

13 July 1916

John Henry Bond
Lillian Esther Vaughan Relf

John Henry Bond
Lillian Esther Vaughan Relf
💍 1916/14429

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

45
32

Mahoe
Mahoe

2 months
2 months

Residence of R. Relf, Mahoe

5647

13 July 1916

Henry Tatton, Salvation Army

No	27
Date of Notice	13 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Bond	Lillian Esther Vaughan Relf
	💍 1916/14429
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	45	32
Dwelling Place	Mahoe	Mahoe
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of R. Relf, Mahoe
Folio	5647
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Henry Tatton, Salvation Army

18 July 1916

Philip Keightley
Olive Vernie Ranton

Philip Keightley
Olive Vernie Renton
💍 1916/14428

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm hand

23
25

Midhirst
Midhirst

23 years
2 years

Residence of Francis Keightley, Denmark Terrace, Midhirst

5646

18 July 1916

G. H. Bridgman, Methodist

No	28
Date of Notice	18 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Keightley	Olive Vernie Ranton
BDM Match (97%)	Philip Keightley	Olive Vernie Renton
	💍 1916/14428
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm hand
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Midhirst	Midhirst
Length of Residence	23 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Francis Keightley, Denmark Terrace, Midhirst
Folio	5646
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1916
Officiating Minister	G. H. Bridgman, Methodist

21 July 1916

Arthur Douglas Johnson
Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt

Arthur Douglas Johnson
Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt
💍 1916/7919

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
32

Lowgarth
Hawera

17 years
1 month

Residence of J. Moffitt, Turuturu road, Hawera

5576

21 July 1916

J. R. Shore, Presbyterian

No	29
Date of Notice	21 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Douglas Johnson	Margaret Elizabeth Moffitt
	💍 1916/7919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	32
Dwelling Place	Lowgarth	Hawera
Length of Residence	17 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Moffitt, Turuturu road, Hawera
Folio	5576
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 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).