Intentions to Marry, 1906 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840432, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 011

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 1906 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

110

3 April 1906

Arthur Dudley Thomson
Gladys Annie Newman

Arthur Dudley Thomson
Gladys Annie Newman
💍 1906/3130

Bachelor
Spinster

Boot-maker
domestic duties

25
18

Ashburton
Ashburton

10 months
18 years

at the dwelling of John Frankome, 18 Paul Newman street, Ashburton

06/2888

John Frankome, father of minor

3 April 1906

Rev Alfred Peters

No	110
Date of Notice	3 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Dudley Thomson	Gladys Annie Newman
	💍 1906/3130
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boot-maker	domestic duties
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	10 months	18 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of John Frankome, 18 Paul Newman street, Ashburton
Folio	06/2888
Consent	John Frankome, father of minor
Date of Certificate	3 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev Alfred Peters

111

4 April 1906

Walter Horne Jones
Minnie Worner

Walter Horne Jones
Minnie Worner
💍 1906/3720

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
domestic duties

24
26

Christchurch
Rangiora

3 years
6 days

St Stephens Church of England, Ashburton

06/3725

4 April 1906

Rev Edwin Whitehouse

No	111
Date of Notice	4 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Horne Jones	Minnie Worner
	💍 1906/3720
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Rangiora
Length of Residence	3 years	6 days
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church of England, Ashburton
Folio	06/3725
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev Edwin Whitehouse

112

4 April 1906

Louis Francis Brown
Ellen Elizabeth Keele

Louis Francis Brown
Ellen Elizabeth Keete
💍 1906/3721

Bachelor
Spinster

farm laborer
domestic duties

27
24

Ashburton
Ashburton

7 years
4 years

St Stephens Church of England, Ashburton

06/3726

4 April 1906

Rev E. Whitehouse

No	112
Date of Notice	4 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Francis Brown	Ellen Elizabeth Keele
BDM Match (98%)	Louis Francis Brown	Ellen Elizabeth Keete
	💍 1906/3721
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farm laborer	domestic duties
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church of England, Ashburton
Folio	06/3726
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev E. Whitehouse

113

4 April 1906

Henry George Frampton
Evelyn Parker

Henry George Frampton
Evelyn Parker
💍 1906/3074

Bachelor
Spinster

farmer
domestic duties

22
27

Willowby
Willowby

22 years
1 year

Wesleyan Church at Willowby

06/2876

4 April 1906

Rev Thomas J. Wallis

No	113
Date of Notice	4 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry George Frampton	Evelyn Parker
	💍 1906/3074
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farmer	domestic duties
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Willowby	Willowby
Length of Residence	22 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church at Willowby
Folio	06/2876
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas J. Wallis

114

7 April 1906

Harvey Jonathan Bell
Martha Jane Huston

Harvey Jonathan Bell
Martha Jane Huston
💍 1906/5650

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler
domestic duties

23
24

Tinwald
Tinwald

23 years
3 years

Church of England at Tinwald

06/5437

7 April 1906

Rev E. Whitehouse

No	114
Date of Notice	7 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harvey Jonathan Bell	Martha Jane Huston
	💍 1906/5650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler	domestic duties
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Tinwald
Length of Residence	23 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England at Tinwald
Folio	06/5437
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev E. Whitehouse

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).