Intentions to Marry, 1907 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840435, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1907 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1907a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1907b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1907c).

Page 036

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar Lyonel Charles Williams

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

12 January 1907

Harry Adkins
Elizabeth Ellen Gearry

Harry Adkins
Elizabeth Ellen Gearry
💍 1907/1242

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

26
26

Christchurch
Christchurch

2 years
6 years

House of Mrs Geary, 39 Gichel Street, Linwood

07/1322

12 January 1907

Rev. T. Tait, Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	12 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Adkins	Elizabeth Ellen Gearry
	💍 1907/1242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Geary, 39 Gichel Street, Linwood
Folio	07/1322
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Tait, Presbyterian

12 January 1907

John William Barnes Isherwood
Harriett Elizabeth White

John William Barnes Isherwood
Harriett Elizabeth White
💍 1907/1229

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

26
23

Christchurch
Christchurch

12 years
9 years

St. Michaels

07/1333

12 January 1907

Archd Averill, Anglican

No	37
Date of Notice	12 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Barnes Isherwood	Harriett Elizabeth White
	💍 1907/1229
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	12 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Michaels
Folio	07/1333
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Archd Averill, Anglican

14 January 1907

Ashley Lewis
Anna Minnie Savage

Ashleigh Lewis
Anna Minnie Savage
💍 1907/1195

Widower
Widow

Labourer

34
31

Prebbleton
Halswell

6 months
2 years

Anglican Church, Halswell

14 January 1907

Rev. G. G. Biddle, Anglican

No	38
Date of Notice	14 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ashley Lewis	Anna Minnie Savage
BDM Match (89%)	Ashleigh Lewis	Anna Minnie Savage
	💍 1907/1195
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Prebbleton	Halswell
Length of Residence	6 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Halswell
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. G. Biddle, Anglican

14 January 1907

Alexander John Petersen
Annie Gordon

Alexander John Petersen
Annie Gordon
💍 1907/1175

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

25
24

Christchurch
St. Albans

3 years
10 months

House of Rev. Dr. Erwin, Papanui Road, St. Albans

07/1281

14 January 1907

Rev. Dr. Erwin, Presbyterian

No	39
Date of Notice	14 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander John Petersen	Annie Gordon
	💍 1907/1175
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	St. Albans
Length of Residence	3 years	10 months
Marriage Place	House of Rev. Dr. Erwin, Papanui Road, St. Albans
Folio	07/1281
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr. Erwin, Presbyterian

14 January 1907

Harold Richard Morrison
Ellen Davies

Harold Richard Morrison
Ellen Davies
💍 1907/1033

John Berry
Ellen Davies
💍 1907/5886

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist

27
24

Belfast
Belfast

12 months
8 months

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

07/1130

14 January 1907

L. C. Williams, Registrar

No	40
Date of Notice	14 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Richard Morrison	Ellen Davies
	💍 1907/1033
BDM Match (61%)	John Berry	Ellen Davies
	💍 1907/5886
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Belfast	Belfast
Length of Residence	12 months	8 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	07/1130
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1907
Officiating Minister	L. C. Williams, Registrar

14 January 1907

Alfred James Edward Baker
Nellie Lorimer

Alfred James Edward Baker
Nellie Lorimer
💍 1907/1044

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
29

Christchurch
Christchurch

1 year
14 days

House of Mr Coomber, Thackeray Street, Sydenham

07/1116

14 January 1907

Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, Methodist

No	41
Date of Notice	14 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Edward Baker	Nellie Lorimer
	💍 1907/1044
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	1 year	14 days
Marriage Place	House of Mr Coomber, Thackeray Street, Sydenham
Folio	07/1116
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, Methodist

15 January 1907

Lambert Bowen
Margaret Florence Rolleston

Lambert Bowen
Margaret Florence Rolleston
💍 1907/1356

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

36
25

Christchurch
Christchurch

8 months
1 week

St. Peters, Riccarton

07/1460

15 January 1907

Rev. C. S. Bowden, Anglican

No	42
Date of Notice	15 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lambert Bowen	Margaret Florence Rolleston
	💍 1907/1356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	8 months	1 week
Marriage Place	St. Peters, Riccarton
Folio	07/1460
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. S. Bowden, Anglican

15 January 1907

Ashley Lewis
Anna Minnie Savage

Ashleigh Lewis
Anna Minnie Savage
💍 1907/1195

Widower
Widow

Labourer

34
31

Prebbleton
Halswell

6 months
2 years

House of Rev. W. Bannister, Durham Street, Christchurch

07/1299

15 January 1907

Rev. W. Bannister, Methodist

No	43
Date of Notice	15 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ashley Lewis	Anna Minnie Savage
BDM Match (89%)	Ashleigh Lewis	Anna Minnie Savage
	💍 1907/1195
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Prebbleton	Halswell
Length of Residence	6 months	2 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. W. Bannister, Durham Street, Christchurch
Folio	07/1299
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Bannister, Methodist

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).