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 1110

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

8 January 1916

David Henry Hastie
Winifred Murphy

David Henry Hastie
Winifred Murphy
💍 1916/3481

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Wireman
Laundress

24
21

Napier
Napier

2 years
2 years

St. Augustines Church Napier

525

8 January 1916

Rev. Canon Tuke, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	8 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Henry Hastie	Winifred Murphy
	💍 1916/3481
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Wireman	Laundress
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church Napier
Folio	525
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Tuke, Church of England

10 January 1916

Herbert Ward
Ethel Johnson

Herbert Ward
Ethel Johnson
💍 1916/3479

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Cloth Weaver

30
23

Westshore
Westshore

4 months
2 years

Presbyterian Church Port Ahuriri

523

10 January 1916

Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	10 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Ward	Ethel Johnson
	💍 1916/3479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Cloth Weaver
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Westshore	Westshore
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Port Ahuriri
Folio	523
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

14 January 1916

Thomas Edward Martin
Martha Anne Ryan (M. N. Davis)

Thomas Edward Martin
Martha Anne Ryan
💍 1916/8713

Bachelor
Divorced 17th December 1915

Stevedore
Domestic Duties

35
29

Port Ahuriri
Port Ahuriri

3 1/2 years
4 years

Residence of Rev. Thos. Tait, Milton Road, Napier

423

14 January 1916

Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	14 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Edward Martin	Martha Anne Ryan (M. N. Davis)
BDM Match (77%)	Thomas Edward Martin	Martha Anne Ryan
	💍 1916/8713
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 17th December 1915
Profession	Stevedore	Domestic Duties
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Port Ahuriri
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. Thos. Tait, Milton Road, Napier
Folio	423
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Tait, Presbyterian

17 January 1916

John Paterson
Laura Elizabeth Blackburn

John Paterson
Laura Elizabeth Blackburn
💍 1916/3480

John Cameron
Pansy Blackburn
💍 1916/5658

Widower 4th March 1914
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

38
30

Napier
Napier

7 days
30 years

St. Augustines Church Napier

524

17 January 1916

Rev. Canon Tuke, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	17 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Paterson	Laura Elizabeth Blackburn
	💍 1916/3480
BDM Match (60%)	John Cameron	Pansy Blackburn
	💍 1916/5658
Condition	Widower 4th March 1914	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	7 days	30 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church Napier
Folio	524
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Tuke, Church of England

19 January 1916

Leslie Norman de Boudry Ironsen
Gertrude Mary Bann

Leslie Norman de Coudry Tronson
Gertrude Mary Cann
💍 1916/3478

Bachelor
Spinster

Saw Mill Hand
Cook

25
20

Napier
Napier

2 1/2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Napier

522

Henry Bann, Father

19 January 1916

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	19 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Norman de Boudry Ironsen	Gertrude Mary Bann
BDM Match (92%)	Leslie Norman de Coudry Tronson	Gertrude Mary Cann
	💍 1916/3478
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saw Mill Hand	Cook
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	522
Consent	Henry Bann, Father
Date of Certificate	19 January 1916
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, 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).