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 616

District of Kaitangata Quarter ending 30 June 1905 Registrar Joseph Sarjeant

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

15 April 1905

Samuel Dunn Corston
Margaret Farquhar Brown

Samuel Dunn Corston
Margaret Farquhar Brown
💍 1905/1726

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic duties

26
28

Milton
Wangaloa

2 years

Residence of James D Brown, Wangaloa

05/3440

15 April 1905

Rev R Scott Allan, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	15 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Dunn Corston	Margaret Farquhar Brown
	💍 1905/1726
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic duties
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Milton	Wangaloa
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of James D Brown, Wangaloa
Folio	05/3440
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev R Scott Allan, Presbyterian

20 April 1905

John Wilson
Catherine Hill

John Wilson
Catherine Hill
💍 1905/2406

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

26 years
23 years

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

26 years
2 years

Church of England

05/4841

20 April 1905

Rev G W Davidson, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	20 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wilson	Catherine Hill
	💍 1905/2406
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	26 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	26 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	05/4841
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev G W Davidson, Church of England

20 April 1905

Charles Frederick Fletcher
Mary Boyne Carson

Charles Frederick Fletcher
Mary Boyne Carson
💍 1905/1727

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Domestic duties

26 years
26 years

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

3 years
26 years

Registrars Office, Kaitangata

05/3441

20 April 1905

Wm F Jarvie, Deputy Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	20 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frederick Fletcher	Mary Boyne Carson
	💍 1905/1727
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Domestic duties
Age	26 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	3 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Kaitangata
Folio	05/3441
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Wm F Jarvie, Deputy Registrar

25 April 1905

Edward James Swallow
Christina Carson

Edward James Swallow
Christina Carson
💍 1905/2556

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic duties

25 years
26 years

Goodwood
Kaitangata

5 years
20 years

Residence of Andrew Carson Senior, Kaitangata

05/3017

25 April 1905

Rev S W Currie, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	25 April 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Swallow	Christina Carson
	💍 1905/2556
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic duties
Age	25 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Goodwood	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	5 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Andrew Carson Senior, Kaitangata
Folio	05/3017
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 April 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev S W Currie, Presbyterian

6 May 1905

George William Carveth
Jane Stewart Richardson

George William Carveth
Janet Stewart Richardson
💍 1905/1728

Widower
Widow

Laborer
Housekeeper

56 years
48 years

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

4 months
4 months

Registrars Office, Kaitangata

05/3442

6 May 1905

J Sarjeant, Registrar

No	8
Date of Notice	6 May 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Carveth	Jane Stewart Richardson
BDM Match (98%)	George William Carveth	Janet Stewart Richardson
	💍 1905/1728
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Laborer	Housekeeper
Age	56 years	48 years
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Kaitangata
Folio	05/3442
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 May 1905
Officiating Minister	J Sarjeant, 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 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).