Intentions to Marry, 1917 Aria to Masterton

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840471, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1917 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.

1917c contains pages 862-1282, covering districts from Aria to Masterton

Page 885

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar W. Callaghan

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

6 January 1917

Walter John Mitchell
Lillian Bramwell Simpson

Walter John Mitchell
Lillian Bramwell Simpson
💍 1917/1812

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier 25th Reinforcement
Domestic Duties

24
23

Patea
Hawera

9 years
18 months

Registrar's Office Hawera

944

6 January 1917

W. Callaghan Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	6 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Mitchell	Lillian Bramwell Simpson
	💍 1917/1812
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier 25th Reinforcement	Domestic Duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Patea	Hawera
Length of Residence	9 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hawera
Folio	944
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Callaghan Registrar

12 January 1917

Alfred Dorey Morse
Edith May Eagar

Alfred Wrey Morse
Edith May Eagar
💍 1917/1817

Bachelor
Spinster

Caretaker
Housekeeper

47
36

Hawera
Inglewood

14 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church Inglewood

943

12 January 1917

G. Ireland Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	12 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Dorey Morse	Edith May Eagar
BDM Match (94%)	Alfred Wrey Morse	Edith May Eagar
	💍 1917/1817
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Caretaker	Housekeeper
Age	47	36
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Inglewood
Length of Residence	14 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Inglewood
Folio	943
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1917
Officiating Minister	G. Ireland Presbyterian

16 January 1917

Joseph Henry Tanner
Margaret Florence Stackhouse

Joseph Henry Tanner
Margaret Florence Stackhouse
💍 1917/2264

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

25
22

Normanby
Normanby

3 days
2 years

Church of England Normanby

1427

16 January 1917

C. H. Grant Cowen Anglican

No	3
Date of Notice	16 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Henry Tanner	Margaret Florence Stackhouse
	💍 1917/2264
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Normanby	Normanby
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Normanby
Folio	1427
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1917
Officiating Minister	C. H. Grant Cowen Anglican

29 January 1917

Peter Campbell
Constance Maud Goodchild

Peter Campbell
Constance Maud Goodchild
💍 1917/1814

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

42
31

Ararata
Ararata

3 days
4 years

Residence of W. B. Kelland Ararata

945

29 January 1917

T. G. Hammond Methodist

No	4
Date of Notice	29 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Campbell	Constance Maud Goodchild
	💍 1917/1814
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	42	31
Dwelling Place	Ararata	Ararata
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. B. Kelland Ararata
Folio	945
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1917
Officiating Minister	T. G. Hammond Methodist

7 February 1917

Harold Jessop
Catherine Teresa Macdonald

Harold Jessop
Catherine Teresa Maindonald
💍 1917/1815

Bachelor
Spinster

Pastrycook
Domestic duties

26
26

Hawera
Hawera

5 years
14 years

Church of England Hawera

946

7 February 1917

C. H. Grant Cowen Anglican

No	5
Date of Notice	7 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Jessop	Catherine Teresa Macdonald
BDM Match (96%)	Harold Jessop	Catherine Teresa Maindonald
	💍 1917/1815
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pastrycook	Domestic duties
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	5 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Hawera
Folio	946
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1917
Officiating Minister	C. H. Grant Cowen Anglican

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).