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 1213

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar Ernest George Stapp

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

11 October 1917

Arthur Victor Lankshear
Janet Beatrice Hay

Arthur Victor Lankshear
Janet Beatrice Hay
💍 1917/547

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

23
21

Colyton
Feilding

21 years
3 years

Saint Pauls Church, Feilding

6028

11 October 1917

Rev. Thomas Miller, Presbyterian

No	28
Date of Notice	11 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Victor Lankshear	Janet Beatrice Hay
	💍 1917/547
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Colyton	Feilding
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Saint Pauls Church, Feilding
Folio	6028
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Miller, Presbyterian

15 October 1917

George Henry McDermid
Agnes Lavenia Maud Rankin

George Henry McDermid
Agnes Lavenor Maud Rankin
💍 1917/548

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
domestic duties

27
21

Feilding
Feilding

1 year
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Feilding

6029

15 October 1917

Rev. Thomas Miller, Presbyterian

No	29
Date of Notice	15 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry McDermid	Agnes Lavenia Maud Rankin
BDM Match (96%)	George Henry McDermid	Agnes Lavenor Maud Rankin
	💍 1917/548
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	domestic duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Feilding
Folio	6029
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Miller, Presbyterian

01 November 1917

Thomas Gibson Shilton
Elizabeth Middleton

Thomas Gibson Shilton
Elizabeth Middleton
💍 1917/549

Bachelor
Spinster

Salvation Army Officer
Salvation Army Officer

22
28

Feilding
Feilding

5 days
10 days

Salvation Army Hall, Feilding

6030

01 November 1917

Brigadier J. J. Toomer, Salvation Army

No	30
Date of Notice	01 November 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Gibson Shilton	Elizabeth Middleton
	💍 1917/549
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salvation Army Officer	Salvation Army Officer
Age	22	28
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	5 days	10 days
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall, Feilding
Folio	6030
Consent
Date of Certificate	01 November 1917
Officiating Minister	Brigadier J. J. Toomer, Salvation Army

05 November 1917

Leonard Herbert Connolly
Nellie Sinclair

Leonard Herbert Connolly
Nellie Sinclair
💍 1917/550

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

22
22

Cheltenham
Cheltenham

1 month
22 years

St. Paul's Church, Cheltenham

6031

05 November 1917

Rev. J. F. Mayo, Anglican

No	31
Date of Notice	05 November 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Herbert Connolly	Nellie Sinclair
	💍 1917/550
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Cheltenham	Cheltenham
Length of Residence	1 month	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Cheltenham
Folio	6031
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 November 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Mayo, Anglican

13 November 1917

Alfred Stanley Jacobsen
Louisa Mai

Alfred Stanley Jacobsen
Louisa Mai
💍 1917/551

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic Duties

23
23

Feilding
Feilding

3 days
7 days

Registrar's Office Post Office, Feilding

6032

13 November 1917

Ernest George Stapp, Registrar

No	32
Date of Notice	13 November 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Stanley Jacobsen	Louisa Mai
	💍 1917/551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic Duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	3 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Post Office, Feilding
Folio	6032
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1917
Officiating Minister	Ernest George Stapp, 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).