Intentions to Marry, 1905 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840429, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 016

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar William Winsbury White

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

4 April 1905

Howard Collingwood Barton
Nellie Moorhouse McLauchlan

Howard Collingwood Barton
Nellie Moorhouse McLauchlan
💍 1905/7191

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

23
23

Ruapuna
Ruapuna

7 years
19 years

Presbyterian Church Ashburton

05/2775

4 April 1905

Rev G. B. Inglis

No	21
Date of Notice	4 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Collingwood Barton	Nellie Moorhouse McLauchlan
	💍 1905/7191
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Ruapuna	Ruapuna
Length of Residence	7 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	05/2775
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev G. B. Inglis

8 April 1905

William Mathew Smith
Sarah Elizabeth Williams

William Matthew Smith
Sarah Elizabeth Williams
💍 1905/7200

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Laborer
domestic duties

28
30

Longbeach
Waterton

6 years
15 years

At the dwelling of the Rev T. Wallis at Willowby

05/2781

8 April 1905

Rev Thomas T. Wallis

No	22
Date of Notice	8 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Mathew Smith	Sarah Elizabeth Williams
BDM Match (98%)	William Matthew Smith	Sarah Elizabeth Williams
	💍 1905/7200
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Laborer	domestic duties
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Longbeach	Waterton
Length of Residence	6 years	15 years
Marriage Place	At the dwelling of the Rev T. Wallis at Willowby
Folio	05/2781
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas T. Wallis

8 April 1905

John McLauchlan
Agnes Shearer

John McLouchlan
Agnes Shearer
💍 1905/7197

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

31
31

Waterton
Wheatstone

14 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church Flemington

05/2779

8 April 1905

Rev J. C. Paterson M. A.

No	23
Date of Notice	8 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McLauchlan	Agnes Shearer
BDM Match (97%)	John McLouchlan	Agnes Shearer
	💍 1905/7197
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Waterton	Wheatstone
Length of Residence	14 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Flemington
Folio	05/2779
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. C. Paterson M. A.

11 April 1905

Samuel John Gudsell
Mabel Huston

Samuel John Gudsell
Mabel Huston
💍 1905/322

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
domestic duties

21
16

Tinwald
Tinwald

21 years
3 years

Church of England at Tinwald

05/3581

Arthur Johnston Huston, father of Minor

11 April 1905

Rev E. A. Blakiston

No	24
Date of Notice	11 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel John Gudsell	Mabel Huston
	💍 1905/322
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	domestic duties
Age	21	16
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Tinwald
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England at Tinwald
Folio	05/3581
Consent	Arthur Johnston Huston, father of Minor
Date of Certificate	11 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev E. A. Blakiston

11 April 1905

Frederick Butterick
Lavinia Ann Trevurza

Frederick Butterick
Lavinia Ann Trevurza
💍 1905/7190

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

28
25

Wakanui
Ashburton

28 years
6 months

In the dwelling of Thomas Trevurza at Allenton

05/2772

15 April 1905

Rev G. B. Inglis

No	25
Date of Notice	11 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Butterick	Lavinia Ann Trevurza
	💍 1905/7190
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Wakanui	Ashburton
Length of Residence	28 years	6 months
Marriage Place	In the dwelling of Thomas Trevurza at Allenton
Folio	05/2772
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev G. B. Inglis

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1903. 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).