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 877

District of Wyndham Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar J. Miller

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

17 January 1907

James Henderson Baird
Millicent Emily White

James Henderson Baird
Millicent Emily White
💍 1907/1671

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner
None

29
25

Wyndham
Winton

5 days
10 years

Residence of J. L White Esq. Winton

07/1781

17 January 1907

Rev. James Baird

No	1
Date of Notice	17 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henderson Baird	Millicent Emily White
	💍 1907/1671
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner	None
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Wyndham	Winton
Length of Residence	5 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J. L White Esq. Winton
Folio	07/1781
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Baird

21 January 1907

Peter Alfred Botting
Ellen Margaret Mullen

Peter Alfred Botting
Ellen Margaret Mullen
💍 1907/1988

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic

24
19

Edendale
Kamahi

2 years
11 years

Residence of Robert Mullen Kamahi

07/2110

Robert Mullen, Father

21 January 1907

Rev. L. A. Thompson

No	2
Date of Notice	21 January 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Alfred Botting	Ellen Margaret Mullen
	💍 1907/1988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Edendale	Kamahi
Length of Residence	2 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Robert Mullen Kamahi
Folio	07/2110
Consent	Robert Mullen, Father
Date of Certificate	21 January 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. A. Thompson

13 March 1907

William Walker Chaplin
Susan Hunter Ferguson

William Walter Chaplin
Susan Hunter Ferguson
💍 1907/8201

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler
None

24
21

Wyndham
Wyndham

23 years
21 years

Presbyterian Church Wyndham

07/1787

13 March 1907

Rev. Sangster

No	3
Date of Notice	13 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Walker Chaplin	Susan Hunter Ferguson
BDM Match (98%)	William Walter Chaplin	Susan Hunter Ferguson
	💍 1907/8201
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler	None
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wyndham	Wyndham
Length of Residence	23 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Wyndham
Folio	07/1787
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Sangster

16 March 1907

Patrick Lachlan Clark
Janet McPhail

Patrick Lachlan Clark
Janet McPhail
💍 1907/1691

Widower
Spinster

Merchant
Domestic Duties

42
37

Dunedin
Wyndham

9 years
10 days

Residence of Mrs. John McPhail, South Wyndham

07/1785

16 March 1907

Rev. Sangster

No	4
Date of Notice	16 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Lachlan Clark	Janet McPhail
	💍 1907/1691
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Merchant	Domestic Duties
Age	42	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Wyndham
Length of Residence	9 years	10 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. John McPhail, South Wyndham
Folio	07/1785
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Sangster

18 March 1907

Frederick William Johnson Crosbie
Mary McCallum

Frederick William Johnson Crosbie
Mary McCallum
💍 1907/1692

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
26

Wyndham
Menzies Ferry

23 years
20 years

Residence of R. M. McCallum, Menzies Ferry

07/1786

18 March 1907

Rev. Sangster

No	5
Date of Notice	18 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Johnson Crosbie	Mary McCallum
	💍 1907/1692
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wyndham	Menzies Ferry
Length of Residence	23 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of R. M. McCallum, Menzies Ferry
Folio	07/1786
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev. Sangster

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).