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 1142

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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

145

4 December 1916

Garnet Tidball Herd
Emily Dorothy Carpenter

Garnet Tidball Herd
Emily Dorothy Carpenter
💍 1916/1024

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman
Domestic Duties

26
21

Napier
Napier

20 years
3½ years

St. Augustines Church Napier

7561

4 December 1916

Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

No	145
Date of Notice	4 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Garnet Tidball Herd	Emily Dorothy Carpenter
	💍 1916/1024
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman	Domestic Duties
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	20 years	3½ years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church Napier
Folio	7561
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

146

6 December 1916

William Frederick Sinden
Elizabeth Anne Kallinshaw

William Frederick Sinden
Elizabeth Anne Rallinshaw
💍 1916/3009

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Waitress

32
30

Napier
Napier

30 years
2 years

St. Patricks Church Napier

8203

6 December 1916

Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

No	146
Date of Notice	6 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Sinden	Elizabeth Anne Kallinshaw
BDM Match (98%)	William Frederick Sinden	Elizabeth Anne Rallinshaw
	💍 1916/3009
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Waitress
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	30 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Church Napier
Folio	8203
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

147

8 December 1916

John Herbert Norman
Clara Brieske

John Herbert Norman
Clara Brieske
💍 1916/1020

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Machinist

30
27

Napier
Napier

30 years
6 years

St. Augustines Church Napier

7569

8 December 1916

Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

No	147
Date of Notice	8 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Herbert Norman	Clara Brieske
	💍 1916/1020
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Machinist
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	30 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church Napier
Folio	7569
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

148

13 December 1916

Walter Scott Pindar
Mary Elizabeth McCarthy

Walter Scott Pindar
Mary Elizabeth McCarthy
💍 1916/3045

Widower 8th Aug 1890
Widow 24th Aug 1914

Bookbinder
Costumier

60
40

Napier
Napier

11 years
2½ years

St. John's Cathedral Napier

8185

13 December 1916

Rev. Canon Mayne, Church of England

No	148
Date of Notice	13 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Scott Pindar	Mary Elizabeth McCarthy
	💍 1916/3045
Condition	Widower 8th Aug 1890	Widow 24th Aug 1914
Profession	Bookbinder	Costumier
Age	60	40
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	11 years	2½ years
Marriage Place	St. John's Cathedral Napier
Folio	8185
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Mayne, Church of England

149

16 December 1916

Charles Frederick Oak
Emily Norman

Charles Frederick Oak
Emily Norman
💍 1916/2971

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman
Domestic Duties

31
21

Napier
Napier

29 years
8 years

Methodist Church Napier

8159

16 December 1916

Rev. T. R. Richards, Methodist

No	149
Date of Notice	16 December 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frederick Oak	Emily Norman
	💍 1916/2971
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman	Domestic Duties
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	29 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Napier
Folio	8159
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. 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).