Intentions to Marry, 1909 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840441, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1909 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1909a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1909b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1909c).

Page 028

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 1909 Registrar W. 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

435

11 December 1909

Martin Sutherland
Amy Elizabeth Lill

Martin Sutherland
Amy Elizabeth Lill
💍 1909/5736

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
domestic duties

27
27

Inglewood
Willowby

3 days
2 years

at the dwelling of W. J. Lill, Willowby

09/7141

11 December 1909

Rev. A. Ashcroft

No	435
Date of Notice	11 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Sutherland	Amy Elizabeth Lill
	💍 1909/5736
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	domestic duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Inglewood	Willowby
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of W. J. Lill, Willowby
Folio	09/7141
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Ashcroft

436

13 December 1909

Mungo Alexander Guthrie
Margaret Ross

Mungo Alexander Guthrie
Margaret Ross
💍 1909/5557

Bachelor
Spinster

Hair-dresser
domestic duties

23
20

Ashburton
Tinwald

18 months
4 years

at the dwelling of Andrew Ross, Tinwald

09/7153

Andrew Ross, father of minor

13 December 1909

Rev. B. H. Standage

No	436
Date of Notice	13 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mungo Alexander Guthrie	Margaret Ross
	💍 1909/5557
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hair-dresser	domestic duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Tinwald
Length of Residence	18 months	4 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of Andrew Ross, Tinwald
Folio	09/7153
Consent	Andrew Ross, father of minor
Date of Certificate	13 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. H. Standage

437

13 December 1909

Charles Henry Bell
Catherine Trewain

Charles Henry Bell
Emma Catherine Tremain
💍 1909/5554

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

25
19

Tinwald
Tinwald

25 years
12 years

at the Church of England, Tinwald

09/7152

Robert Trewain, father of minor

13 December 1909

Rev. G. B. Took

No	437
Date of Notice	13 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Bell	Catherine Trewain
BDM Match (86%)	Charles Henry Bell	Emma Catherine Tremain
	💍 1909/5554
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Tinwald
Length of Residence	25 years	12 years
Marriage Place	at the Church of England, Tinwald
Folio	09/7152
Consent	Robert Trewain, father of minor
Date of Certificate	13 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Took

438

15 December 1909

Richard James Frederick Aston
Alice Mildred Aston

Richard James Fredennick
Alice Mildred Aston
💍 1909/6357

Bachelor
Spinster

Shipwright
domestic duties

25
24

Lyttelton
Ashburton

3 days
24 years

at the dwelling of George Aston, Allenton

09/7909

15 December 1909

Rev. R. J. Liddell

No	438
Date of Notice	15 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard James Frederick Aston	Alice Mildred Aston
BDM Match (86%)	Richard James Fredennick	Alice Mildred Aston
	💍 1909/6357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shipwright	domestic duties
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of George Aston, Allenton
Folio	09/7909
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Liddell

439

14 December 1909

Frederick Charles Burgess
May Belinda Burgess

Frederick Charles Clothier
May Belinda Burglss
💍 1909/7857

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
domestic duties

22
21

Tinwald
Hampstead

22 years
21 years

at the Methodist Church, Ashburton

09/7910

17 December 1909

Rev. R. J. Liddell

No	439
Date of Notice	14 December 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Burgess	May Belinda Burgess
BDM Match (82%)	Frederick Charles Clothier	May Belinda Burglss
	💍 1909/7857
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	domestic duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Hampstead
Length of Residence	22 years	21 years
Marriage Place	at the Methodist Church, Ashburton
Folio	09/7910
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 December 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Liddell

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).