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 316

District of Temuka Quarter ending 31 March 1912 Registrar Alfred Roberts

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

10 January 1912

George Henry Harrison
Ruth Prattley

George Henry Harrison
Ruth Prattley
💍 1912/1997

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic duties

24
19

Ohape
Ohape

6 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Temuka

12/1677

Jane Prattley, Mother

10 January 1912

Alfred Roberts, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	10 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Harrison	Ruth Prattley
	💍 1912/1997
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Ohape	Ohape
Length of Residence	6 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Temuka
Folio	12/1677
Consent	Jane Prattley, Mother
Date of Certificate	10 January 1912
Officiating Minister	Alfred Roberts, Registrar

3 February 1912

Hugh Hamilton Hutcheson
Isabel Blanche Alene

Hugh Hamilton Hutcheson
Isabel Blanche Alene Ann Chapman
💍 1912/1694

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic duties

30
23

Temuka
Temuka

10 months
23 years

St Peter's Church, Temuka

12/1429

Ann Chapman, Mother

3 February 1912

A. H. Norris

No	2
Date of Notice	3 February 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Hamilton Hutcheson	Isabel Blanche Alene
BDM Match (81%)	Hugh Hamilton Hutcheson	Isabel Blanche Alene Ann Chapman
	💍 1912/1694
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic duties
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Temuka	Temuka
Length of Residence	10 months	23 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Temuka
Folio	12/1429
Consent	Ann Chapman, Mother
Date of Certificate	3 February 1912
Officiating Minister	A. H. Norris

4 March 1912

George Edward Austin
Ida Moss

George Edward Austin
Ida Moss
💍 1912/1913

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

23
19

Temuka
Winchester

1 week
19 years

At the residence of Elizabeth Alice Moss, Winchester

12/1549

Elizabeth Alice Moss, Mother

4 March 1912

Charles Macdonald

No	3
Date of Notice	4 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Edward Austin	Ida Moss
	💍 1912/1913
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Temuka	Winchester
Length of Residence	1 week	19 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Elizabeth Alice Moss, Winchester
Folio	12/1549
Consent	Elizabeth Alice Moss, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 March 1912
Officiating Minister	Charles Macdonald

12 March 1912

Lachlan John Grant
Cordelia Helen Ashwell

Lachlan John Grant
Cordelia Helen Ashwell
💍 1912/1693

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

25
21

Glandeboye
Temuka

19 months
21 years

St Peter's Church, Temuka

12/1428

12 March 1912

Arthur Hugh Norris

No	4
Date of Notice	12 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lachlan John Grant	Cordelia Helen Ashwell
	💍 1912/1693
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Glandeboye	Temuka
Length of Residence	19 months	21 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Temuka
Folio	12/1428
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1912
Officiating Minister	Arthur Hugh Norris

25 March 1912

Arthur Prattley
Susan Agnes Wood Perham

Arthur Prattley
Susan Agnes Wood Perham
💍 1912/1910

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic duties

21
24

Temuka
Temuka

21 years
8 years

Salvation Army Barracks, Temuka

12/1546

25 March 1912

John Jago, Brigadier

No	5
Date of Notice	25 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Prattley	Susan Agnes Wood Perham
	💍 1912/1910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	24
Dwelling Place	Temuka	Temuka
Length of Residence	21 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Barracks, Temuka
Folio	12/1546
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1912
Officiating Minister	John Jago, Brigadier

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).