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 1287

District of Featherston Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar George Levy

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

13 January 1916

Henry James Godfrey Smith
Virginia Agnes Sullivan

Henry James Godfrey Smith
Virginia Agnes Sullivan
💍 1916/11030

Bachelor
Widow (Former Husband died at Auckland Hospital Dec 2nd 1912)

Soldier
Domestic

31
33

Featherston
Featherston

2 months
6 weeks

Church of England, Featherston

586

13 January 1916

Rev. G. C. Cruickshank, Anglican

No	1
Date of Notice	13 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Godfrey Smith	Virginia Agnes Sullivan
	💍 1916/11030
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (Former Husband died at Auckland Hospital Dec 2nd 1912)
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	31	33
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	2 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England, Featherston
Folio	586
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. C. Cruickshank, Anglican

31 January 1916

Michael Maurice White
Vera Grace Howell

Michael Maurice Whits
Vera Grace Howell
💍 1916/26

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

24
17

Featherston
Featherston

3 months
3 months

Roman Catholic Church, Featherston

581

Mary Christensen, mother

31 January 1916

Rev. Thomas Segrief, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	31 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Maurice White	Vera Grace Howell
BDM Match (98%)	Michael Maurice Whits	Vera Grace Howell
	💍 1916/26
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Featherston
Folio	581
Consent	Mary Christensen, mother
Date of Certificate	31 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Segrief, Roman Catholic

14 February 1916

James Eccles
Margaret Gibson Milroy

James Eccles
Margaret Gibson Milroy
💍 1916/11047

Bachelor
Widow (Former husband died at Kilmarnock, Scotland, May 28th 1910)

Stonemason
Domestic

48
41

Featherston
Featherston

3 weeks
4 days

Presbyterian Manse, Featherston

580

14 February 1916

Rev. G. K. Stowell, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	14 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Eccles	Margaret Gibson Milroy
	💍 1916/11047
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (Former husband died at Kilmarnock, Scotland, May 28th 1910)
Profession	Stonemason	Domestic
Age	48	41
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	3 weeks	4 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Featherston
Folio	580
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Stowell, Presbyterian

14 February 1916

Henry Hans Moores
Frances Evelyn Myrtle Swan

Henry Hans Moores
Frances Evelyn Myrtle Swan
💍 1916/11051

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

28
25

Featherston
Featherston

2 months
1 week

Registrar's Office, Featherston

585

14 February 1916

George Levy, Deputy Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Hans Moores	Frances Evelyn Myrtle Swan
	💍 1916/11051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	2 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Featherston
Folio	585
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1916
Officiating Minister	George Levy, Deputy Registrar

17 February 1916

William Chrystal
Annie Thomson

William Chrystal
Annie Thornton
💍 1916/11050

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

33
21

Featherston
Featherston

6 days
1 day

Registrar's Office, Featherston

584

17 February 1916

George Levy, Deputy Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	17 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Chrystal	Annie Thomson
BDM Match (89%)	William Chrystal	Annie Thornton
	💍 1916/11050
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	6 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Featherston
Folio	584
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1916
Officiating Minister	George Levy, Deputy Registrar

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).