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 1300

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar William Martin Hayes Diamond

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

10 February 1916

Ivan Hope Miller
Beatrice Thompson

Ivan Hope Miller
Beatrice Thompson
💍 1916/11039

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

23
24

Featherston Camp
Feilding

24 years

Residence of Fairfield Thompson Feilding

595

10 February 1916

Rev Thos Miller

No	11
Date of Notice	10 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ivan Hope Miller	Beatrice Thompson
	💍 1916/11039
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Featherston Camp	Feilding
Length of Residence		24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Fairfield Thompson Feilding
Folio	595
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev Thos Miller

16 February 1916

Jonathan Richard Whittaker
Marion Heather Alderson

Jonathon Richard Whittaker
Marion Harker Alderson
💍 1916/11038

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
23

Colyton
Colyton

27 years
7 months

Church of England Feilding

594

16 February 1916

Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

No	12
Date of Notice	16 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jonathan Richard Whittaker	Marion Heather Alderson
BDM Match (92%)	Jonathon Richard Whittaker	Marion Harker Alderson
	💍 1916/11038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Colyton	Colyton
Length of Residence	27 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Church of England Feilding
Folio	594
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes Jones

28 February 1916

William Edward Bennett
Winifred Charlotte Johnson

William Edward Bennett
Winifred Charlotte Johnson
💍 1916/11035

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
22

Feilding
Kiwitea

3 days
1 year

Presbyterian Church Feilding

591

28 February 1916

Rev Thos. Miller

No	13
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Bennett	Winifred Charlotte Johnson
	💍 1916/11035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Kiwitea
Length of Residence	3 days	1 year
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Feilding
Folio	591
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev Thos. Miller

5 March 1916

James Patrick Coyle
Mary O'Leary

James Patrick Coyle
Mary OLeary
💍 1916/11034

Bachelor
Spinster

Trainer
Domestic

40
31

Bulls
Feilding

6 months

Roman Catholic Church Feilding

590

5 March 1916

Rev. M. M. O'Dwyer

No	14
Date of Notice	5 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Patrick Coyle	Mary O'Leary
BDM Match (96%)	James Patrick Coyle	Mary OLeary
	💍 1916/11034
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Trainer	Domestic
Age	40	31
Dwelling Place	Bulls	Feilding
Length of Residence		6 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Feilding
Folio	590
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. M. O'Dwyer

15 March 1916

William Francis Wade
Myrtle Louisa Curran

William Francis Eade
Myrtle Louisa Curran
💍 1916/11032

Bachelor
Spinster

Drapers Assistant

21
23

Feilding
Feilding

3 days
10 days

Baptist Church Feilding

588

15 March 1916

Rev. E. Nicholls

No	15
Date of Notice	15 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Wade	Myrtle Louisa Curran
BDM Match (98%)	William Francis Eade	Myrtle Louisa Curran
	💍 1916/11032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drapers Assistant
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	10 days
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Feilding
Folio	588
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Nicholls

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).