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 1043

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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

2 July 1917

William Cecil Simmons
Elsie May Fenn

William Cecil Simmons
Elsie May Fenn
💍 1917/4956

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Carpenter
Weaver

20
19

Napier
Napier

20 years
19 years

All Saints Church Taradale

4408

John Simmons, Father; Henry George Fenn, Father

2 July 1917

Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

No	55
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Cecil Simmons	Elsie May Fenn
	💍 1917/4956
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Carpenter	Weaver
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	20 years	19 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Taradale
Folio	4408
Consent	John Simmons, Father; Henry George Fenn, Father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England

4 July 1917

Leonard James Rosevear
Gladys Eliza Morrison

Leonard James Rosevear
Gladys Eliza Morrison
💍 1917/4934

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Factory Hand

24
20

Westshore
Napier

6 months
20 years

Baptist Church Napier

4409

Eliza Morrison, Mother

4 July 1917

Rev. G. Menzies, Baptist

No	56
Date of Notice	4 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard James Rosevear	Gladys Eliza Morrison
	💍 1917/4934
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Factory Hand
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Westshore	Napier
Length of Residence	6 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Napier
Folio	4409
Consent	Eliza Morrison, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Menzies, Baptist

4 July 1917

Jasper Nielsen
Rosina Faith McSavoney

Jasper Nielsen
Rosina Faith McSavoney
💍 1917/4935

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Domestic

22
27

Napier
Napier

1 year
7 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4410

4 July 1917

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	57
Date of Notice	4 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jasper Nielsen	Rosina Faith McSavoney
	💍 1917/4935
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Domestic
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	1 year	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4410
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

5 July 1917

Mathew Doran
Isabella Skews

Mathew Doran
Isabella Skews
💍 1917/4936

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic

26
19

Napier
Napier

3 years
11 years

Catholic Church Napier

4411

Charles Skews, Father

5 July 1917

Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

No	58
Date of Notice	5 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mathew Doran	Isabella Skews
	💍 1917/4936
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church Napier
Folio	4411
Consent	Charles Skews, Father
Date of Certificate	5 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic

10 July 1917

Arthur Parnell Spackman
Edris Eileen Grubb

Arthur Parnell Spackman
Edris Eileen Grubb
💍 1917/4937

Bachelor
Spinster

chemist
Domestic Duties

20
19

Napier
Napier

20 years
16 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4412

Henry Goold Spackman, Father; John Drayton Grubb, Father

10 July 1917

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	59
Date of Notice	10 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Parnell Spackman	Edris Eileen Grubb
	💍 1917/4937
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	chemist	Domestic Duties
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	20 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4412
Consent	Henry Goold Spackman, Father; John Drayton Grubb, Father
Date of Certificate	10 July 1917
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).