Intentions to Marry, 1910 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840444, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1910 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1910a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1910b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1910c).

Page 810

District of Wakatipu Quarter ending 30 June 1910 Registrar John Alexander Algie

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

1 April 1910

Andrew James Thompson
Vida Thomazia Firth

Andrew James Thompson
Vida Thomazia Firth
💍 1910/3539

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk, Magistrates Court
Domestic duties

30
28

Queenstown
Wellington

3 years
6 months

St Pauls pro cathedral, Wellington

10/3782

1 April 1910

Thomas Henry Sprott M.A., Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	1 April 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew James Thompson	Vida Thomazia Firth
	💍 1910/3539
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk, Magistrates Court	Domestic duties
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Queenstown	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St Pauls pro cathedral, Wellington
Folio	10/3782
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1910
Officiating Minister	Thomas Henry Sprott M.A., Church of England

4 April 1910

Francis Heffernan
Isabel Jane Aitken

Francis Heffernan
Isabel Jane Aitken
💍 1910/5488

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic duties

39
28

Glenorchy
Paradise

4 years
18 years

The Office of the Registrar, Queenstown

10/5960

4 April 1910

The Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	4 April 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Heffernan	Isabel Jane Aitken
	💍 1910/5488
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic duties
Age	39	28
Dwelling Place	Glenorchy	Paradise
Length of Residence	4 years	18 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar, Queenstown
Folio	10/5960
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1910
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

5 April 1910

John Henry Charles Lorden
Catherine Hannah Fraser Urquhart

John Henry Charles Lorden
Catherine Hannah Fraser Urquhart
💍 1910/3272

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic duties

34
34

Queenstown
Lake Hayes

27 years
30 years

The residence of Mrs Mary McClelland, Beach St., Queenstown

10/3457

5 April 1910

Horace Packe M.A., Church of England

No	8
Date of Notice	5 April 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Charles Lorden	Catherine Hannah Fraser Urquhart
	💍 1910/3272
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic duties
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Queenstown	Lake Hayes
Length of Residence	27 years	30 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Mrs Mary McClelland, Beach St., Queenstown
Folio	10/3457
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1910
Officiating Minister	Horace Packe M.A., Church of England

27 April 1910

Daniel James McKenzie
Agnes Meiklejohn

Daniel James McKenzie
Agnes Meiklejohn
💍 1910/5610

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic duties

38
38

Glenorchy
Creighton

20 years
38 years

The residence of John F. O'Donnell, Queenstown

10/5888

27 April 1910

John F. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	9
Date of Notice	27 April 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel James McKenzie	Agnes Meiklejohn
	💍 1910/5610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic duties
Age	38	38
Dwelling Place	Glenorchy	Creighton
Length of Residence	20 years	38 years
Marriage Place	The residence of John F. O'Donnell, Queenstown
Folio	10/5888
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1910
Officiating Minister	John F. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

4 May 1910

Henry Adams
Catherine Brennan

Henry Adams
Catherine Brennan
💍 1910/5611

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic duties

39
26

Glenorchy
Glenorchy

2 years
6 months

Roman Catholic Church, Queenstown

10/5889

4 May 1910

John F. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	10
Date of Notice	4 May 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Adams	Catherine Brennan
	💍 1910/5611
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic duties
Age	39	26
Dwelling Place	Glenorchy	Glenorchy
Length of Residence	2 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Queenstown
Folio	10/5889
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 May 1910
Officiating Minister	John F. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

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).