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 1109

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar W. Buchanan

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

4 January 1916

William Oates (Junior)
Annie Berkahn

William Oates
Annie Berkahn
💍 1916/11408

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic Duties

29
23

Napier
Napier

4 days
4 days

St. Johns Cathedral, Napier

2618

4 January 1916

Rev. Canon Mayne, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Oates (Junior)	Annie Berkahn
BDM Match (80%)	William Oates	Annie Berkahn
	💍 1916/11408
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Johns Cathedral, Napier
Folio	2618
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Mayne, Church of England

4 January 1916

Patrick Hickey
Rosena McMahon

Patrick Hickey
Rosena McMahon
💍 1916/3466

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Servant
Nurse

33
27

Napier
Greenmeadows

3 years
1 year

Catholic Church, Meeanee

511

4 January 1916

Rev. Father Goggan, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Hickey	Rosena McMahon
	💍 1916/3466
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Servant	Nurse
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Greenmeadows
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Meeanee
Folio	511
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Goggan, Roman Catholic

6 January 1916

Leonard James Harvey
Florence Hill Powdrell

Leonard James Harvey
Florance Hill Powdrell
💍 1916/9475

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger
Domestic Duties

32
33

Papakura
Meeanee

32 years
30 years

All Saints Church, Taradale

510

6 January 1916

Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	6 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard James Harvey	Florence Hill Powdrell
BDM Match (98%)	Leonard James Harvey	Florance Hill Powdrell
	💍 1916/9475
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger	Domestic Duties
Age	32	33
Dwelling Place	Papakura	Meeanee
Length of Residence	32 years	30 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Taradale
Folio	510
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

7 January 1916

Eric Parkes Amner
Mabel Phyllis Boy

Bachelor
Spinster

Lime Manufacturer
Nurse

22
24

Napier
Napier

22 years
2 days

St. Augustines Church, Napier

7 January 1916

Rev. Canon Luke, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	7 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Parkes Amner	Mabel Phyllis Boy
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lime Manufacturer	Nurse
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	22 years	2 days
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church, Napier
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Luke, Church of England

8 January 1916

William Gladstone Macdonald
May Eleanor Villars

William Gladstone Macdonald
May Elenora Villars
💍 1916/3513

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
book

31
30

Napier
Napier

3 days
3 days

Methodist Parsonage, Napier

553

8 January 1916

Rev. J. R. Richards, Methodist

No	5
Date of Notice	8 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gladstone Macdonald	May Eleanor Villars
BDM Match (95%)	William Gladstone Macdonald	May Elenora Villars
	💍 1916/3513
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	book
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, Napier
Folio	553
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Richards, Methodist

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).