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 298

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1906 Registrar Alexander Montgomery

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

16 February 1906

John Robert Rich
Mary Ellen McSweeney

John Robert Rich
Mary Ellen McSweeney
💍 1906/3526

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman
Domestic Duties

21 years
24 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
3 years

Roman Catholic Priory, Timaru

06/3221

16 February 1906

Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

No	17
Date of Notice	16 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robert Rich	Mary Ellen McSweeney
	💍 1906/3526
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman	Domestic Duties
Age	21 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Priory, Timaru
Folio	06/3221
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

17 February 1906

Edward Ashley Fitzgerald
Margery O'Boyle

Edward Ashley Fitzgerald
Margery O'Boyle
💍 1906/3528

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

27 years
23 years

Timaru
Waimataitai

2 years
14 days

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

06/3223

17 February 1906

Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

No	18
Date of Notice	17 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Ashley Fitzgerald	Margery O'Boyle
	💍 1906/3528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Waimataitai
Length of Residence	2 years	14 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	06/3223
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

17 February 1906

Peter Paul Garlick
Catherine Adeline McSweeney

Peter Paul Garlick
Catherine Aveline McSweeney
💍 1906/3527

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk
Domestic Duties

21 years
22 years

Timaru
Timaru

4 days
7 years

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

06/3222

17 February 1906

Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

No	19
Date of Notice	17 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Paul Garlick	Catherine Adeline McSweeney
BDM Match (98%)	Peter Paul Garlick	Catherine Aveline McSweeney
	💍 1906/3527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	21 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	4 days	7 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	06/3222
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

17 February 1906

William Austin Parmenter
Mary Elizabeth Parmenter

William Austin
Mary Elizabeth Parmenster
💍 1906/2589

William Hubert Laydon
Mary Elizabeth Buterment
💍 1906/874

William Joseph Marsden
Mary Elizabeth Morgan
💍 1906/6997

William Cuthbert Parsons
Mary Elizabeth Walker
💍 1906/3054

Bachelor
Spinster

Pipe Maker
Domestic Duties

28 years
20 years

Timaru
Timaru

5 years
8 years

Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Isabella Parmenter, Heaton Street, Timaru

06/1217

Isabella Parmenter, Mother

17 February 1906

Rev. S. J. Serpell, Wesleyan Minister

No	20
Date of Notice	17 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Austin Parmenter	Mary Elizabeth Parmenter
BDM Match (77%)	William Austin	Mary Elizabeth Parmenster
	💍 1906/2589
BDM Match (63%)	William Hubert Laydon	Mary Elizabeth Buterment
	💍 1906/874
BDM Match (63%)	William Joseph Marsden	Mary Elizabeth Morgan
	💍 1906/6997
BDM Match (63%)	William Cuthbert Parsons	Mary Elizabeth Walker
	💍 1906/3054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pipe Maker	Domestic Duties
Age	28 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	5 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Isabella Parmenter, Heaton Street, Timaru
Folio	06/1217
Consent	Isabella Parmenter, Mother
Date of Certificate	17 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Serpell, Wesleyan Minister

23 February 1906

John O'Neill
Mary Ellen Hartnett

John O'Neill
Mary Ellen Hartnett
💍 1906/3529

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

32 years
19 years

Timaru
Timaru

2 years
9 years

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

06/3224

Lawrence Hartnett, Father

23 February 1906

Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

No	21
Date of Notice	23 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John O'Neill	Mary Ellen Hartnett
	💍 1906/3529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	32 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	06/3224
Consent	Lawrence Hartnett, Father
Date of Certificate	23 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest

7 March 1906

George McRitchie
Ethel Robinson

George McKitterick
Ethel Robinson
💍 1906/2365

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor's Cutter
Draper's Assistant

29 years
22 years

Timaru
Timaru

12 years
22 years

St. Mary's English Church, Timaru

06/1206

7 March 1906

Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman

No	22
Date of Notice	7 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George McRitchie	Ethel Robinson
BDM Match (83%)	George McKitterick	Ethel Robinson
	💍 1906/2365
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor's Cutter	Draper's Assistant
Age	29 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	12 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru
Folio	06/1206
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1906
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman

23 March 1906

Benjamin Edward Evans
Janet Cunningham Hutton

Benjamin Edward Evans
Janet Cummingham Hutton
💍 1906/3530

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School Teacher

25 years
24 years

Pareora
Deaconsfield

25 years
2 years

Wesleyan Church, Pareora

06/3225

23 March 1906

Rev. H. G. Chapple, Presbyterian Minister

No	23
Date of Notice	23 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Edward Evans	Janet Cunningham Hutton
BDM Match (96%)	Benjamin Edward Evans	Janet Cummingham Hutton
	💍 1906/3530
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School Teacher
Age	25 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Pareora	Deaconsfield
Length of Residence	25 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Pareora
Folio	06/3225
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Chapple, Presbyterian Minister

27 March 1906

Charles William Rutherford
Alethea Mary Robinson

Charles William Rutherford
Alethea Mary Robinson
💍 1906/4022

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Duties

29 years
25 years

Pareora East
Timaru

2 months
25 years

St. Mary's English Church, Timaru

06/1746

27 March 1906

Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman

No	24
Date of Notice	27 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Rutherford	Alethea Mary Robinson
	💍 1906/4022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Duties
Age	29 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Pareora East	Timaru
Length of Residence	2 months	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru
Folio	06/1746
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1906
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman

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).