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 1037

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1917 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

21 April 1917

Ivan Douglas Waldin
Margaret Mary Smith

Ivan Douglas Waldin
Margaret Mary Smith
💍 1917/3525

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

21
21

Napier
Napier

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office, Napier

2769

21 April 1917

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	34
Date of Notice	21 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ivan Douglas Waldin	Margaret Mary Smith
	💍 1917/3525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	2769
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

27 April 1917

Edwin Kates Pratt
Ivy Isabel Hawkes

Edwin Kates Pratt
Ivy Isabel Hawkes
💍 1917/3527

Bachelor
Spinster

Steward
Waitress

26
21

Napier
Napier

4 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Napier

2770

27 April 1917

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	27 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Kates Pratt	Ivy Isabel Hawkes
	💍 1917/3527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Steward	Waitress
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	2770
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

3 May 1917

Frank Alma Withers
Myrtle Julia Havell

Frank Alma Withers
Myrtle Julia Havell
💍 1917/3528

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman
Housemaid

32
22

Napier
Napier

11 years
4 years

Residence of Mrs. Finucane, Carnell Street, Napier

2771

3 May 1917

Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	3 May 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Alma Withers	Myrtle Julia Havell
	💍 1917/3528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman	Housemaid
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	11 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Finucane, Carnell Street, Napier
Folio	2771
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

5 May 1917

Joshua Henry Sherlock
Kathleen Primrose Bainbridge

Joshua Henry Sherlock
Kathleen Primrose Bainbridge
💍 1917/3529

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Teacher

31
27

Te-Rehunga Camp
Napier

2 months
1 year

St. Augustines Church, Napier

2772

5 May 1917

Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

No	37
Date of Notice	5 May 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joshua Henry Sherlock	Kathleen Primrose Bainbridge
	💍 1917/3529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Teacher
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Te-Rehunga Camp	Napier
Length of Residence	2 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church, Napier
Folio	2772
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Rice, Church of England

14 May 1917

Leonard Herbert Lionel Maclean
Dorothy Isabel Ward

Leonard Herbert Lionel Maclean
Dorothy Isabel Ward
💍 1917/3551

Bachelor
Spinster

soldier late Sheepfarmer
School Teacher

35
24

Napier
Napier

3 days
3 years

St. Johns Cathedral, Napier

2777

14 May 1917

Rev. Archdeacon Williams, Church of England

No	38
Date of Notice	14 May 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Herbert Lionel Maclean	Dorothy Isabel Ward
	💍 1917/3551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	soldier late Sheepfarmer	School Teacher
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Cathedral, Napier
Folio	2777
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon Williams, Church of England

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).