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 1045

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

24 July 1917

Albert Street
Annie Durrant
formerly Neville

Albert Street
Annie Durrant
💍 1917/4940

Bachelor
Divorced 19th July 1917

Car Driver
Housemaid

29
24

Napier
Napier

5 years
24 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4416

24 July 1917

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	65
Date of Notice	24 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Street	Annie Durrant formerly Neville
	💍 1917/4940
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 19th July 1917
Profession	Car Driver	Housemaid
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	5 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4416
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1917
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

27 July 1917

Carl Borch Svendsen
Doris Keating

Carl Borch Svendsen
Doris Keating
💍 1917/4941

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
Domestic

22
19

Port Ahuriri
Port Ahuriri

2 years
19 years

St. Patrick's Church Napier

4417

Arthur Ernest Keating, Father

27 July 1917

Rev. Father O'Sullivan Roman Catholic

No	66
Date of Notice	27 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl Borch Svendsen	Doris Keating
	💍 1917/4941
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Domestic
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Port Ahuriri
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church Napier
Folio	4417
Consent	Arthur Ernest Keating, Father
Date of Certificate	27 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father O'Sullivan Roman Catholic

27 July 1917

James Glenny Gibson
Caroline Margaret Jessie Boyd

James Glenny Gibson
Caroline Margaret Jessie Boyd
💍 1917/5326

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
General Servant

33
17

Napier
Napier

5 years
17 years

St. John's Cathedral Napier

4884

Louisa Lyne Boyd, Mother

27 July 1917

Rev. Canon Mayne Church of England

No	67
Date of Notice	27 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Glenny Gibson	Caroline Margaret Jessie Boyd
	💍 1917/5326
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	General Servant
Age	33	17
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	5 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Cathedral Napier
Folio	4884
Consent	Louisa Lyne Boyd, Mother
Date of Certificate	27 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Mayne Church of England

8 August 1917

Michael Quirk
Violet May La Broome

Michael Quirk
Violet May La Broome
💍 1917/4942

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
Domestic Duties

27
27

Port Ahuriri
Port Ahuriri

7 days
27 years

St. Mary's Church Port Ahuriri

4418

8 August 1917

Rev. Father O'Sullivan Roman Catholic

No	68
Date of Notice	8 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Quirk	Violet May La Broome
	💍 1917/4942
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Domestic Duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Port Ahuriri
Length of Residence	7 days	27 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church Port Ahuriri
Folio	4418
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father O'Sullivan Roman Catholic

10 August 1917

Ernest James Roach
Caroline Logan

Ernest James Roach
Caroline Logan
💍 1917/4943

Bachelor
Widow 18th December 1898

Cook
Housekeeper

41
42

Napier
Napier

3 years
25 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4419

10 August 1917

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	69
Date of Notice	10 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest James Roach	Caroline Logan
	💍 1917/4943
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 18th December 1898
Profession	Cook	Housekeeper
Age	41	42
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4419
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 August 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).