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 932

District of Winton Quarter ending 30 September 1912 Registrar I. G. Russell

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

138

26 July 1912

Joseph Henry Box
Charlotte Macdonald

Joseph Henry Cox
Charlotte Macdonald
💍 1912/7730

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

23
22

Kauana
Kauana

11 years
5 years

House of W. Bolin, Kauana

12/5857

26 July 1912

Rev. John Miller, Presbyterian

No	138
Date of Notice	26 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Henry Box	Charlotte Macdonald
BDM Match (97%)	Joseph Henry Cox	Charlotte Macdonald
	💍 1912/7730
BDM Match (97%)	Joseph Henry Cox	Charlotte Macdonald
	💍 1912/7730
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Kauana	Kauana
Length of Residence	11 years	5 years
Marriage Place	House of W. Bolin, Kauana
Folio	12/5857
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Miller, Presbyterian

139

26 July 1912

James David Anderson
Henrietta Anderson

James Baird
Henrietta Anderson
💍 1912/7731

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

35
31

Otapiri Gorge
Fernhill

25 years
31 years

House of W. David Anderson, Fernhill

12/5858

26 July 1912

Rev. John Miller, Presbyterian

No	139
Date of Notice	26 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James David Anderson	Henrietta Anderson
BDM Match (73%)	James Baird	Henrietta Anderson
	💍 1912/7731
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	35	31
Dwelling Place	Otapiri Gorge	Fernhill
Length of Residence	25 years	31 years
Marriage Place	House of W. David Anderson, Fernhill
Folio	12/5858
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Miller, Presbyterian

140

14 August 1912

George Tomlinson
Annie Mancey

George Tomlinson
Annie Mancey
💍 1912/5837

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
28

Winton
Winton

3 days
23 years

Methodist Church, Winton

12/5174

14 August 1912

Rev. C. A. Foston, Methodist

No	140
Date of Notice	14 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Tomlinson	Annie Mancey
	💍 1912/5837
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Winton	Winton
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Winton
Folio	12/5174
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Foston, Methodist

141

26 August 1912

Jeremiah O'Callaghan
Kate Cunningham

Jeremiah O'Callaghan
Kate Cunningham
💍 1912/7766

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

33
22

Centre Bush
Makarewa

4 days
2 months

St. Thomas's Church, Invercargill

12/5923

26 August 1912

Rev. P. O'Neill, Roman Catholic

No	141
Date of Notice	26 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jeremiah O'Callaghan	Kate Cunningham
	💍 1912/7766
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	33	22
Dwelling Place	Centre Bush	Makarewa
Length of Residence	4 days	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Thomas's Church, Invercargill
Folio	12/5923
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. O'Neill, Roman Catholic

142

18 September 1912

Thomas Smart
Catherine Kate Atkin

Thomas Smart
Catherine Kate Atkins
💍 1912/4651

Bachelor
Spinster

Teamster
Mantle maker

31
29

Centre Bush
Arrived at Wellington by S.S. "Athenic"

2 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Winton

12/4499

18 September 1912

J. G. Russell, Registrar

No	142
Date of Notice	18 September 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Smart	Catherine Kate Atkin
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Smart	Catherine Kate Atkins
	💍 1912/4651
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teamster	Mantle maker
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Centre Bush	Arrived at Wellington by S.S. "Athenic"
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Winton
Folio	12/4499
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 September 1912
Officiating Minister	J. G. Russell, Registrar

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).