Intentions to Marry, 1908 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840438, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1908 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1908a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1908b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1908c).

Page 817

District of Waikouaiti Quarter ending 31 December 1908 Registrar E. Davis

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

3 November 1908

Alexander Moffitt
Rose Mary Summers

Alexander Moffitt
Rose Mary Summers
💍 1908/3371

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

22
24

Tumai
Tumai

3 days
2 weeks

House of J. Summers, Tumai

08/8188

3 November 1908

Rev. J. J. Carney, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	3 November 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Moffitt	Rose Mary Summers
	💍 1908/3371
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Tumai	Tumai
Length of Residence	3 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	House of J. Summers, Tumai
Folio	08/8188
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 November 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Carney, Presbyterian

7 November 1908

John Elder Moultrey
Winifred Helen McFie

John Elder Moultray
Winifred Helen McFie
💍 1908/3594

Bachelor
Spinster

Artist
Artist

45
27

Dunedin
Waikouaiti

25 years
23 years

House of Mr. Moultrey, Dunedin

08/8334

7 November 1908

Rev. S. J. Campbell, Methodist

No	7
Date of Notice	7 November 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Elder Moultrey	Winifred Helen McFie
BDM Match (97%)	John Elder Moultray	Winifred Helen McFie
	💍 1908/3594
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artist	Artist
Age	45	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Waikouaiti
Length of Residence	25 years	23 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. Moultrey, Dunedin
Folio	08/8334
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Campbell, Methodist

5 December 1908

Thomas Graham Boyd
Mary Jane McRae

Thomas Graham Boyd
Mary Jane McLean
💍 1908/3382

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
34

Waikouaiti
Waikouaiti

1 week
34 years

At the House of Mrs. Elizabeth Mc Lean, Waikouaiti

08/8189

5 December 1908

Rev. J. J. Carney, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	5 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Graham Boyd	Mary Jane McRae
BDM Match (91%)	Thomas Graham Boyd	Mary Jane McLean
	💍 1908/3382
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	34
Dwelling Place	Waikouaiti	Waikouaiti
Length of Residence	1 week	34 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Mrs. Elizabeth Mc Lean, Waikouaiti
Folio	08/8189
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Carney, Presbyterian

11 December 1908

Francis Reuben Jackson
Jennie Galbraith

Francis Reuben Jackson
Jennie Galbraith
💍 1909/7234

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
21

Hawksbury Bush
Hawksbury Bush

3 months
21 years

House of Mr. John Galbraith, Hawksbury Bush

08/1198

11 December 1908

Rev. J. J. Carney

No	9
Date of Notice	11 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Reuben Jackson	Jennie Galbraith
	💍 1909/7234
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Hawksbury Bush	Hawksbury Bush
Length of Residence	3 months	21 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. John Galbraith, Hawksbury Bush
Folio	08/1198
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Carney

17 December 1908

Alexander Samuel Campbell
Catherine Eliza Bray

Alexander Samuel Campbell
Catherine Eliza Bray
💍 1908/3387

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Station Master

25
26

Waikouaiti
Waikouaiti

3 days
26 years

Church of St. John, Waikouaiti

08/8190

17 December 1908

Rev. H. B. Jones, Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	17 December 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Samuel Campbell	Catherine Eliza Bray
	💍 1908/3387
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Station Master
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Waikouaiti	Waikouaiti
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Church of St. John, Waikouaiti
Folio	08/8190
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 December 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Jones, Anglican

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).