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 1051

District of Waimate Plains Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar S. B. Goodger

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 April 1916

Thomas Alexander Milroy
Sydney Bushla Burnside Tonks

Thomas Alexander Milroy
Sydney Cushla Burnside Tonks
💍 1916/6968

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner
Domestic Duties

32
20

Manaia
Hawera

4 years
20 years

St Mary's Church Hawera

4493

Arthur Sydney Tonks, Father

3 April 1916

Reverend C. H. Grant Cowen, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	3 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Alexander Milroy	Sydney Bushla Burnside Tonks
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Alexander Milroy	Sydney Cushla Burnside Tonks
	💍 1916/6968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner	Domestic Duties
Age	32	20
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Hawera
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Hawera
Folio	4493
Consent	Arthur Sydney Tonks, Father
Date of Certificate	3 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Reverend C. H. Grant Cowen, Church of England

20 April 1916

John Matthew Joyce
Mary Theresa McCarty

John Matthew Joyce
Mary Teresa McCarty
💍 1916/6228

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

25
24

Otakeho
Auroa

25 years
24 years

Roman Catholic Church Auroa

3719

20 April 1916

Reverend W. J. Saunders, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	20 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Matthew Joyce	Mary Theresa McCarty
BDM Match (98%)	John Matthew Joyce	Mary Teresa McCarty
	💍 1916/6228
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Otakeho	Auroa
Length of Residence	25 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Auroa
Folio	3719
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Reverend W. J. Saunders, Roman Catholic

28 April 1916

Arthur John Gray
Elsie Edith May Lowe

Arthur John Gray
Elsie Edith Mary Lowe
💍 1916/552

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Domestic Duties

36
25

Kapuni
Manaia

8 years
25 years

Church of England Manaia

3720

28 April 1916

Reverend A. J. B. Page, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	28 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur John Gray	Elsie Edith May Lowe
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur John Gray	Elsie Edith Mary Lowe
	💍 1916/552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Domestic Duties
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Kapuni	Manaia
Length of Residence	8 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Manaia
Folio	3720
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Reverend A. J. B. Page, Church of England

18 May 1916

Alfred Arthur Nobel Brown
Jeanie Taylor

Alfred Nobel Brown
Jennie Taylor
💍 1916/550

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory Manager
Waitress

30
30

Kapuni
Manaia

5 years
1 year

Church of England Manaia

3718

18 May 1916

Reverend A. J. B. Page, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	18 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Arthur Nobel Brown	Jeanie Taylor
BDM Match (82%)	Alfred Nobel Brown	Jennie Taylor
	💍 1916/550
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory Manager	Waitress
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Kapuni	Manaia
Length of Residence	5 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Church of England Manaia
Folio	3718
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Reverend A. J. B. Page, Church of England

24 May 1916

Stanley Roy Walters
Mary Ellen Maude Lander

Stanley Roy Walters
Mary Ellen Maude Landers
💍 1916/3040

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Duties

24
24

Manaia
Kaupokonui

8 years
20 years

Roman Catholic Church Manaia

8180

24 May 1916

Reverend W. J. Saunders, Roman Catholic

No	7
Date of Notice	24 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Roy Walters	Mary Ellen Maude Lander
BDM Match (98%)	Stanley Roy Walters	Mary Ellen Maude Landers
	💍 1916/3040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Duties
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Manaia	Kaupokonui
Length of Residence	8 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Manaia
Folio	8180
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Reverend W. J. Saunders, 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).