Intentions to Marry, 1912 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840450, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1912 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne (1912a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1912b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1912c).

Page 189

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 June 1912 Registrar W. A. Mansell

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

4/12

9 April 1912

Vernon Albert Bendall
Mary Marjorie O'Boyle

Vernon Albert Bendall
Mary Marjorie O'Boyle
💍 1912/3649

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic Duties

23
28

Wanganui
Leeston

3 days
28 years

Roman Catholic Church, Leeston

12/3508

9 April 1912

Rev Father J Taylor, Leeston

No	4/12
Date of Notice	9 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vernon Albert Bendall	Mary Marjorie O'Boyle
	💍 1912/3649
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic Duties
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Leeston
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Leeston
Folio	12/3508
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev Father J Taylor, Leeston

5/12

10 April 1912

Duncan Gillanders
Mary Ann Lill

Duncan Gillanders
Mary Ann Lill
💍 1912/3648

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

36
32

Scargill
Dunsandel

3 days
32 years

Methodist Church, Cheviot

12/3507

10 April 1912

Rev J A Joughin, Leeston

No	5/12
Date of Notice	10 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Gillanders	Mary Ann Lill
	💍 1912/3648
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Scargill	Dunsandel
Length of Residence	3 days	32 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Cheviot
Folio	12/3507
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev J A Joughin, Leeston

6/12

13 April 1912

George Maw
Mary Hampton

George Maw
Mary Hampton
💍 1912/7817

Bachelor
Spinster

Machine Proprietor
Domestic Duties

27
21

Doyleston
Southbridge

27 years
21 years

Residence of Mr Christopher Hampton, Southbridge

12/6102

13 April 1912

Rev R W Jackson, Southbridge

No	6/12
Date of Notice	13 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Maw	Mary Hampton
	💍 1912/7817
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machine Proprietor	Domestic Duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Doyleston	Southbridge
Length of Residence	27 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Christopher Hampton, Southbridge
Folio	12/6102
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev R W Jackson, Southbridge

7/12

15 April 1912

Richard Sheridan Leslie
Catherine Gibson

Richard Sheridan Leslie
Catherine Gibson
💍 1912/4070

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

31
27

Broadfields
Irwell

5 days
3 years

Residence of Mr S Gibson, Irwell

12/3927

15 April 1912

Rev R Erwin, Irwell

No	7/12
Date of Notice	15 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Sheridan Leslie	Catherine Gibson
	💍 1912/4070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Broadfields	Irwell
Length of Residence	5 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr S Gibson, Irwell
Folio	12/3927
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev R Erwin, Irwell

8/12

16 April 1912

Cuthbert Armstrong
Margaret Henrietta Lewis

Cuthbert Armstrong
Margaret Henritta Lewis
💍 1912/3647

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

27
24

Southbridge
Leeston

20 years
20 years

Life Methodist Church, Leeston

12/3506

16 April 1912

Rev J A Joughin, Leeston

No	8/12
Date of Notice	16 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cuthbert Armstrong	Margaret Henrietta Lewis
BDM Match (98%)	Cuthbert Armstrong	Margaret Henritta Lewis
	💍 1912/3647
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Southbridge	Leeston
Length of Residence	20 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Life Methodist Church, Leeston
Folio	12/3506
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev J A Joughin, Leeston

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).