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 619

District of Kaitangata Quarter ending 31 December 1912 Registrar William Frederic Bennetts

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

5 October 1912

Ernest Lindsay Middlemass
Agnes Mervie

Ernest Lindsay Middlemass
Agnes McVie
💍 1912/9192

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

26
24

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

26 years
1 year

Church of Christ, Kaitangata

12/8432

5 October 1912

Rev. Joseph Binney

No	13
Date of Notice	5 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Lindsay Middlemass	Agnes Mervie
BDM Match (88%)	Ernest Lindsay Middlemass	Agnes McVie
	💍 1912/9192
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	26 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Kaitangata
Folio	12/8432
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph Binney

10 October 1912

John Alexander Petrie
Amelia Walker Boyce

John Alexander Petrie
Amelia Walker Boyce
💍 1912/9244

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Dressmaker

24
25

Balclutha
Invercargill

12 months
25 years

Private residence of bride's mother, Mrs. Boyce, Mary Street, Invercargill

12/853

10 October 1912

Rev. Henry Stocker BA

No	14
Date of Notice	10 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander Petrie	Amelia Walker Boyce
	💍 1912/9244
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Dressmaker
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Balclutha	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 months	25 years
Marriage Place	Private residence of bride's mother, Mrs. Boyce, Mary Street, Invercargill
Folio	12/853
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. Henry Stocker BA

11 November 1912

John Fazakerley
Christina Millar

John Fazakerley
Christina Millar
💍 1912/9191

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

29
18

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

2 months
5 years

Private residence of Alexander Millar, Kaitangata

12/8431

Alexander Millar, father

11 November 1912

Rev. Joseph Binney

No	15
Date of Notice	11 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fazakerley	Christina Millar
	💍 1912/9191
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	18
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	2 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Private residence of Alexander Millar, Kaitangata
Folio	12/8431
Consent	Alexander Millar, father
Date of Certificate	11 November 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph Binney

3 December 1912

Charles Henry Wilson
Edith Durham

Charles Henry Wilson
Edith Durham
💍 1912/9190

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman
Domestic Duties

27
22

Kaitangata
Kaitangata

27 years
10 years

St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kaitangata

12/8430

3 December 1912

Rev. E. L. Woodhouse

No	16
Date of Notice	3 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Wilson	Edith Durham
	💍 1912/9190
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman	Domestic Duties
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Kaitangata	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	27 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kaitangata
Folio	12/8430
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. L. Woodhouse

23 December 1912

Thomas Mitchell Cairns
Emma Jane Williams

Thomas Mitchell Cairns
Emma Jane Williams
💍 1912/5468

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

37
33

Waronui (Mill)
Kaitangata

3 days
14 years

In the residence of the bride's parents, Need Street, Kaitangata

12/9080

23 December 1912

Rev. William Greenslade

No	17
Date of Notice	23 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Mitchell Cairns	Emma Jane Williams
	💍 1912/5468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	37	33
Dwelling Place	Waronui (Mill)	Kaitangata
Length of Residence	3 days	14 years
Marriage Place	In the residence of the bride's parents, Need Street, Kaitangata
Folio	12/9080
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Greenslade

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).