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 1115

District of Wairoa Quarter ending 30 June 1917 Registrar J.P. Crichton

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

3 April 1917

William Frederick Bruce Hingston
Edie Carroll

William Fredrick Bruce Hingston
Edie Carroll
💍 1917/4028

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

24
28

Wairoa
Wairoa

14 years
28 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages Wairoa

3299

3 April 1917

J.H. Sage Deputy Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	3 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Bruce Hingston	Edie Carroll
BDM Match (98%)	William Fredrick Bruce Hingston	Edie Carroll
	💍 1917/4028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	14 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Wairoa
Folio	3299
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1917
Officiating Minister	J.H. Sage Deputy Registrar

2 April 1917

John Henry Young
Wairoa Lee

John Henry Young
Wairoa Lee
💍 1917/3547

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

33
40

Wairoa
Wairoa

13 years
40 years

Church of England Wairoa

2791

2 April 1917

Rev. W.G. Simkin Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	2 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Young	Wairoa Lee
	💍 1917/3547
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	33	40
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	13 years	40 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Wairoa
Folio	2791
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W.G. Simkin Church of England

5 April 1917

Tuahine Runga
Heuwa Hohepa Putaranui

Tuahine Runga
Neuwa Hohepa Putaranui
💍 1917/4025

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

40
26

Nuhaka
Nuhaka

40 years
26 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages Wairoa

3296

5 April 1917

J.H. Sage Deputy Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	5 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tuahine Runga	Heuwa Hohepa Putaranui
BDM Match (98%)	Tuahine Runga	Neuwa Hohepa Putaranui
	💍 1917/4025
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	40	26
Dwelling Place	Nuhaka	Nuhaka
Length of Residence	40 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Wairoa
Folio	3296
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1917
Officiating Minister	J.H. Sage Deputy Registrar

7 April 1917

Ernest Winter
Ada Evelyn Phillips

Ernest Winter
Ada Evelyn Phillips
💍 1917/3548

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer
Domestic duties

30
22

Wairoa
Wairoa

25 years
22 years

St Peters Church Wairoa

2792

7 April 1917

Rev. Father Le Pretre Roman Catholic

No	8
Date of Notice	7 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Winter	Ada Evelyn Phillips
	💍 1917/3548
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer	Domestic duties
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	25 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Wairoa
Folio	2792
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Le Pretre Roman Catholic

10 April 1917

Hirini Mete
Hiriata Erami

Hirini Mete
Hariata Erami
💍 1917/4026

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

28
30

Wairoa
Wairoa

1 week
1 week

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wairoa

17/3297

10 April 1917

J.L. Sage, Deputy Registrar

No	9
Date of Notice	10 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hirini Mete	Hiriata Erami
BDM Match (96%)	Hirini Mete	Hariata Erami
	💍 1917/4026
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wairoa
Folio	17/3297
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1917
Officiating Minister	J.L. Sage, Deputy 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).