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 191

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 September 1912 Registrar Walter Abbott

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

188

8 July 1912

Donald Navern
Nellie Oliver

Donald Nairn
Nellie Oliver
💍 1912/6014

Bachelor
Spinster

Creamery Manager
Domestic Duties

25
25

Drwell
Leeston

25 years
3 years

Residence of Charles Oliver, Leeston

12/5055

8 July 1912

Rev. D. G. Barley, Leeston

No	188
Date of Notice	8 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Navern	Nellie Oliver
BDM Match (92%)	Donald Nairn	Nellie Oliver
	💍 1912/6014
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Creamery Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Drwell	Leeston
Length of Residence	25 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Charles Oliver, Leeston
Folio	12/5055
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. G. Barley, Leeston

189

10 July 1912

Sidney George Bishop
Annie Eliza Free

Sidney George Bishop
Annie Eliza Free
💍 1912/6285

Bachelor
Spinster

Stoker
Draper

27
32

Ohaupo
Ross

18 months
32 years

St. James Church of England, Auckland

12/5773

10 July 1912

Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

No	189
Date of Notice	10 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney George Bishop	Annie Eliza Free
	💍 1912/6285
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stoker	Draper
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Ohaupo	Ross
Length of Residence	18 months	32 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church of England, Auckland
Folio	12/5773
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

190

11 July 1912

Robert James Crosser
Caroline Stephens

Robert James Crossen
Caroline Stephens
💍 1912/4894

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

24
19

Dunsandel
Dunsandel

10 years
19 years

Office of Registrar, Leeston

12/4793

mother of bride

11 July 1912

G. Mansell, Registrar (Ellesmere District), Leeston

No	190
Date of Notice	11 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert James Crosser	Caroline Stephens
BDM Match (98%)	Robert James Crossen	Caroline Stephens
	💍 1912/4894
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Dunsandel	Dunsandel
Length of Residence	10 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Leeston
Folio	12/4793
Consent	mother of bride
Date of Certificate	11 July 1912
Officiating Minister	G. Mansell, Registrar (Ellesmere District), Leeston

191

29 July 1912

John Anderson
Ethel Maude Hastings

John Anderson
Ethel Maud Hastings
💍 1912/6284

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

34
23

Lakeside
Lakeside

33 years
23 years

St. James Church of England, Southbridge

12/5777

29 July 1912

Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

No	191
Date of Notice	29 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Anderson	Ethel Maude Hastings
BDM Match (98%)	John Anderson	Ethel Maud Hastings
	💍 1912/6284
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Lakeside	Lakeside
Length of Residence	33 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church of England, Southbridge
Folio	12/5777
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

192

8 August 1912

Thomas Roderick Rollo
Fanny Montgomery

Thomas Roderick Rollo
Fanny Montgomery
💍 1912/6283

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
25

Leeston
Southbridge

4 months
1 week

St. James Church of England, Southbridge

12/5771

8 August 1912

Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

No	192
Date of Notice	8 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Roderick Rollo	Fanny Montgomery
	💍 1912/6283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Leeston	Southbridge
Length of Residence	4 months	1 week
Marriage Place	St. James Church of England, Southbridge
Folio	12/5771
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. G. Hawkins, Southbridge

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).