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 194

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 31 December 1912 Registrar J. A. Mansell

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

27 December 1912

Ernest Gustav Charsel Tehserfeld
Rosina Albridge

Ernest Gustav Ckardel Fehsenfeld
Rosina Aldridge
💍 1912/8812

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

30
32

Sydenham
Dunsandel

30 years
32 years

Presbyterian Church, Christchurch

12/822

8 November 1912

Rev J. S. Reid, Dunsandel

No	1
Date of Notice	27 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Gustav Charsel Tehserfeld	Rosina Albridge
BDM Match (90%)	Ernest Gustav Ckardel Fehsenfeld	Rosina Aldridge
	💍 1912/8812
BDM Match (90%)	Ernest Gustav Ckardel Fehsenfeld	Rosina Aldridge
	💍 1912/8812
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	30	32
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Dunsandel
Length of Residence	30 years	32 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Christchurch
Folio	12/822
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev J. S. Reid, Dunsandel

30 December 1912

David Ferguson Keir
Alice Marion Reese

David Fergusson Keir
Alice Maria Reese
💍 1912/5337

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Duties

25
21

Christchurch
Southbridge

5 years
2 weeks

Residence of Mr Joseph Reese, Southbridge

12/8896

9 December 1912

Rev T. A. Joughin, Leeston

No	9
Date of Notice	30 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Ferguson Keir	Alice Marion Reese
BDM Match (92%)	David Fergusson Keir	Alice Maria Reese
	💍 1912/5337
BDM Match (92%)	David Fergusson Keir	Alice Maria Reese
	💍 1912/5337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Southbridge
Length of Residence	5 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Joseph Reese, Southbridge
Folio	12/8896
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev T. A. Joughin, Leeston

28 December 1912

Lawrence William Hewett
Ethel Eleanor Moody

Lawrence William Hewitt
Ethel Eleanor Moody
💍 1912/8982

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

25
25

Irwell
Irwell

4 years
1 month

Methodist Church, Irwell

12/7995

27 November 1912

Rev A. Gough, Leeston

No	27
Date of Notice	28 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence William Hewett	Ethel Eleanor Moody
BDM Match (98%)	Lawrence William Hewitt	Ethel Eleanor Moody
	💍 1912/8982
BDM Match (98%)	Lawrence William Hewitt	Ethel Eleanor Moody
	💍 1912/8982
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Irwell	Irwell
Length of Residence	4 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Irwell
Folio	12/7995
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Gough, Leeston

29 December 1912

Royce Ellis
Ivy Marjorie Statfield

Royce Ellis
Ivy Marjory Hadfield
💍 1912/8181

Bachelor
Spinster

Creamery Manager
Domestic Duties

19
20

Selwyn
Selwyn

9 months
5 weeks

Office of Registrar, Leeston

12/6890

William Edward Ellis, father of groom

28 November 1912

J. A. Mansell, Registrar, Leeston

No	28
Date of Notice	29 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Royce Ellis	Ivy Marjorie Statfield
BDM Match (89%)	Royce Ellis	Ivy Marjory Hadfield
	💍 1912/8181
BDM Match (89%)	Royce Ellis	Ivy Marjory Hadfield
	💍 1912/8181
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Creamery Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Selwyn	Selwyn
Length of Residence	9 months	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Leeston
Folio	12/6890
Consent	William Edward Ellis, father of groom
Date of Certificate	28 November 1912
Officiating Minister	J. A. Mansell, Registrar, Leeston

31 December 1912

Carl William McAllan Lamont
Ethel Phillipa Millar

Carl William McAllan Lamont
Ethel Philipa Millar
💍 1912/8980

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Duties

22
19

Leeston
Leeston

6 months
19 years

Residence of R. H. Blair, Leeston

12/7994

Millar, father

30 December 1912

Rev R. H. Blair, Leeston

No	30
Date of Notice	31 December 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl William McAllan Lamont	Ethel Phillipa Millar
BDM Match (98%)	Carl William McAllan Lamont	Ethel Philipa Millar
	💍 1912/8980
BDM Match (98%)	Carl William McAllan Lamont	Ethel Philipa Millar
	💍 1912/8980
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Duties
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Leeston	Leeston
Length of Residence	6 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of R. H. Blair, Leeston
Folio	12/7994
Consent	Millar, father
Date of Certificate	30 December 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev R. H. Blair, Leeston

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).