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 896

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar J. S. Daniel

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

25 October 1917

William John Lionel Graham
Margaret Esther Rudkin

William John Lionel Graham
Margaret Esther Rudkin
💍 1917/562

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmhand
Domestic duty

28
16

Hawera
Hawera

28 Years
16 Years

Church of England, Hawera

5889

Montague Herbert Octavius Rudkin, Father

25 October 1917

Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

No	45
Date of Notice	25 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Lionel Graham	Margaret Esther Rudkin
	💍 1917/562
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmhand	Domestic duty
Age	28	16
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	28 Years	16 Years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hawera
Folio	5889
Consent	Montague Herbert Octavius Rudkin, Father
Date of Certificate	25 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

29 October 1917

Herbert Joseph Rudkin
Ivy Gladys Hall

Herbert Joseph Rudkin
Ivy Gladys Hall
💍 1917/563

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

23
23

Hawera
Hawera

20 Years
2 Years

Church of England, Hawera

5890

29 October 1917

Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

No	46
Date of Notice	29 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Joseph Rudkin	Ivy Gladys Hall
	💍 1917/563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	20 Years	2 Years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hawera
Folio	5890
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

19 November 1917

David Bremner
Emily Dorothea Frost

David Bremner
Emily Dorathea Frost
💍 1917/564

Bachelor
Spinster

Porter
Domestic duties

23
19

Hawera
Hawera

3 days
6 weeks

Roman Catholic Church, Hawera

5891

Alfred James Frost, Father

19 November 1917

Rev. P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

No	47
Date of Notice	19 November 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Bremner	Emily Dorothea Frost
BDM Match (98%)	David Bremner	Emily Dorathea Frost
	💍 1917/564
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Porter	Domestic duties
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hawera
Folio	5891
Consent	Alfred James Frost, Father
Date of Certificate	19 November 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Power, Roman Catholic

7 December 1917

William Henry Luscombe
Ivy Pearl Newell

William Henry Luscombe
Ivy Pearl Newell
💍 1918/149

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic duties

28
24

Hawera
Hawera

20 years
24 years

Residence of Arthur Newell, Fraser Rd, Hawera

58/1918

7 December 1917

Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

No	48
Date of Notice	7 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Luscombe	Ivy Pearl Newell
	💍 1918/149
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	20 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Arthur Newell, Fraser Rd, Hawera
Folio	58/1918
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen, Anglican

19 December 1917

Jack Badcock
Claudia Colston Sage

Jack Badcock
Claudia Colston Sage
💍 1917/565

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

23
24

Hawera
Hawera

1 day
17 years

Residence of Mrs. C. Sage, Cameron St, Hawera

5892

19 December 1917

Rev. H. B. Gray, Presbyterian

No	49
Date of Notice	19 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jack Badcock	Claudia Colston Sage
	💍 1917/565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	1 day	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. C. Sage, Cameron St, Hawera
Folio	5892
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Gray, Presbyterian

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).