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 239

District of Oxford Quarter ending 30 September 1905 Registrar Leonard Sylvester Downes

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

13 July 1905

Ernest Carpenter
Maria Sophia Engelbrecht

Ernest Carpenter
Maria Sophia Englebrecht
💍 1905/2617

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

26
23

Oxford
Oxford

9 years
23 years

St Andrews Church, East Oxford

05/5705

13 July 1905

Rev R F Garbatt

No	36
Date of Notice	13 July 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Carpenter	Maria Sophia Engelbrecht
BDM Match (96%)	Ernest Carpenter	Maria Sophia Englebrecht
	💍 1905/2617
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	9 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, East Oxford
Folio	05/5705
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev R F Garbatt

1 August 1905

William Brown
Margretitia Purves

William Brown
Mary Letitia Purves
💍 1905/2767

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

38 years
21 years

Featherston
Oxford

9 years
18 years

Mr Purves private Residence, Oxford

05/5230

1 August 1905

Rev R P Grace

No	37
Date of Notice	1 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brown	Margretitia Purves
BDM Match (92%)	William Brown	Mary Letitia Purves
	💍 1905/2767
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	38 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Oxford
Length of Residence	9 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Mr Purves private Residence, Oxford
Folio	05/5230
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev R P Grace

22 August 1905

Clarence Frederick Bull
Alice Wright

Clarence Frederick Bull
Alice Wright
💍 1905/2619

Alfred Henry Whitehead
Alice Wright
💍 1906/958

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

26 years
26 years

Waddington
Oxford

26 years
26 years

Presbyterian Church

05/5707

22 August 1905

Rev W Spence

No	38
Date of Notice	22 August 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Frederick Bull	Alice Wright
	💍 1905/2619
BDM Match (61%)	Alfred Henry Whitehead	Alice Wright
	💍 1906/958
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	26 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Waddington	Oxford
Length of Residence	26 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	05/5707
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W Spence

4 September 1905

George Henry Schofield
Ellen Patrick Vallance

George Henry Schofield
Ellen Patrick Vallance
💍 1905/2618

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

30 years
21 years

Oxford
Oxford

20 years
15 years

House of Brides parents

05/5706

4 September 1905

Rev W Spence

No	39
Date of Notice	4 September 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Schofield	Ellen Patrick Vallance
	💍 1905/2618
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	30 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	20 years	15 years
Marriage Place	House of Brides parents
Folio	05/5706
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 September 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W Spence

6 September 1905

William McHugh
Mary Ann Ferguson

William McHugh
Mary Ann Gingavon
💍 1905/396

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

39 years
34 years

Ohoka
Bennetts

30 years
30 years

Catholic Church

05/5709

6 September 1905

Rev Father Hyland

No	40
Date of Notice	6 September 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William McHugh	Mary Ann Ferguson
BDM Match (85%)	William McHugh	Mary Ann Gingavon
	💍 1905/396
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	39 years	34 years
Dwelling Place	Ohoka	Bennetts
Length of Residence	30 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church
Folio	05/5709
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 September 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Hyland

9 September 1905

Charles Hartland
Katherine McGrath

Charles Hartland
Katherine McGrath
💍 1905/2620

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic

22 years
22 years

Oxford
Oxford

22 years
22 years

Catholic Church

05/5708

9 September 1905

Rev Father Hyland

No	41
Date of Notice	9 September 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hartland	Katherine McGrath
	💍 1905/2620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic
Age	22 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church
Folio	05/5708
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Hyland

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 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).