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 885

District of Mataura Quarter ending 31 December 1912 Registrar J. F. P. Rich

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

443

15 October 1912

Henry Frederick Everett
Margaret Olive Crow

Henry Frederick Everett
Margaret Olive Crow
💍 1912/9272

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic

28
19

Mataura
Mataura

5 years
19 years

Residence of Mrs. A. Crow, Mataura

12/8562

Mother

15 October 1912

Rev. T. J. Bull

No	443
Date of Notice	15 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Frederick Everett	Margaret Olive Crow
	💍 1912/9272
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	5 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. A. Crow, Mataura
Folio	12/8562
Consent	Mother
Date of Certificate	15 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Bull

444

23 November 1912

John Kennedy Valentine
Mary Fraser Duthie

John Kennedy Valentine
Mary Fraser Duthie
💍 1912/9274

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic

25
30

Waimumu
Waimumu

2 years
30 years

Fairview Farm, Waimumu

12/8562

23 November 1912

Rev. G. McDonald

No	444
Date of Notice	23 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Kennedy Valentine	Mary Fraser Duthie
	💍 1912/9274
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic
Age	25	30
Dwelling Place	Waimumu	Waimumu
Length of Residence	2 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Fairview Farm, Waimumu
Folio	12/8562
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 November 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. McDonald

445

9 December 1912

James Holmes Liggett
Fanny Susan Collinson

James Holmes Liggett
Fanny Susan Collinson
💍 1912/9276

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

25
25

Mataura
Mataura

7 months
6 months

Presbyterian Manse

12/8565

9 December 1912

Rev. G. McDonald

No	445
Date of Notice	9 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Holmes Liggett	Fanny Susan Collinson
	💍 1912/9276
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	7 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse
Folio	12/8565
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. McDonald

446

19 December 1912

Victor Clifford Thompson
Mary Ann Ferguson

Victor Clifford Thompson
Mary Ann Ferguson
💍 1912/9273

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

26
22

Mataura
Tuturau

1 year
22 years

Residence of William John Thompson, Mataura

12/8563

19 December 1912

Rev. T. J. Bull

No	446
Date of Notice	19 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Clifford Thompson	Mary Ann Ferguson
	💍 1912/9273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Tuturau
Length of Residence	1 year	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William John Thompson, Mataura
Folio	12/8563
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Bull

447

21 December 1912

John Alexander McDonald
Mary Turnbull Scott

John Alexander McDonald
Mary Turnbull Scott
💍 1912/5185

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

23
18

Mataura
Mataura

2 years
18 years

Residence of Mr. W. B. Scott, Mataura

12/8564

Father

21 December 1912

Rev. A. Sangster

No	447
Date of Notice	21 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander McDonald	Mary Turnbull Scott
	💍 1912/5185
	💍 1912/5185
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	2 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. B. Scott, Mataura
Folio	12/8564
Consent	Father
Date of Certificate	21 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Sangster

448

27 December 1912

Albert Hanse Perry
Emma May Shepherd

Albert Hanse Perry
Emma May Shepherd
💍 1913/2465

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

23
27

Mataura
Mataura

7 years
27 years

Residence of Mrs. Thomas Shepherd, Mataura

12/2009

27 December 1912

Rev. T. J. Bull

No	448
Date of Notice	27 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Hanse Perry	Emma May Shepherd
	💍 1913/2465
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	7 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Thomas Shepherd, Mataura
Folio	12/2009
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Bull

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).