Intentions to Marry, 1913 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840453, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 136

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1913 Registrar Frank Evans

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

570

24 July 1913

Wilfred Arthur Parsons
Dorothy Constance Hall

Wilfred Arthur Parsons
Dorothy Constance Hall
💍 1913/3531

Bachelor
Spinster

Monumentalist

20
19

Lower Riccarton
St. Albans

Life
7 months

St. Matthew's Church, St. Albans

13/55

Parsons, Father; Emily Lucy Hall, Mother

24 July 1913

Rev. P. B. Haggett

No	570
Date of Notice	24 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Arthur Parsons	Dorothy Constance Hall
	💍 1913/3531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Monumentalist
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Lower Riccarton	St. Albans
Length of Residence	Life	7 months
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, St. Albans
Folio	13/55
Consent	Parsons, Father; Emily Lucy Hall, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. B. Haggett

571

25 July 1913

Robert Hayes
Louisa Mary Lawrence

Robert Hayes
Louisa Mary Lawrence
💍 1913/4998

Bachelor
Divorced since 23 July 1913

Labourer

33
33

Christchurch
Christchurch

6 months
30 years

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

13/4649

25 July 1913

Registrar

No	571
Date of Notice	25 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Hayes	Louisa Mary Lawrence
	💍 1913/4998
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced since 23 July 1913
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 months	30 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	13/4649
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

572

28 July 1913

James McLaren Waterworth
Agnes Ethel Grimwood

James McLaren Waterworth
Agnes Ethel Grimwood
💍 1913/4999

Bachelor
Divorced since 3 March 1905

Labourer

33
33

Christchurch
Christchurch

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

13/4650

28 July 1913

Registrar

No	572
Date of Notice	28 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McLaren Waterworth	Agnes Ethel Grimwood
	💍 1913/4999
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced since 3 March 1905
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	13/4650
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

573

28 July 1913

Francis James Bateman
Emily Caroline Hofmeister

Francis James Bateman
Emily Caroline Hofmeister
💍 1913/3485

Bachelor
Spinster

Landscape Gardener
Bookbinder

46
41

Sydenham
Christchurch

27 years
Life

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

13/4651

28 July 1913

Registrar

No	573
Date of Notice	28 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis James Bateman	Emily Caroline Hofmeister
	💍 1913/3485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Landscape Gardener	Bookbinder
Age	46	41
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Christchurch
Length of Residence	27 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	13/4651
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

574

28 July 1913

William Henry Croft
Edith Mary Gosford

William Henry Croft
Edith Mary Cosford
💍 1913/3496

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
23

Christchurch
Christchurch

6 months
9 months

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

13/4652

28 July 1913

Registrar

No	574
Date of Notice	28 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Croft	Edith Mary Gosford
BDM Match (97%)	William Henry Croft	Edith Mary Cosford
	💍 1913/3496
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	13/4652
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

575

29 July 1913

Herbert Thomas Cole
Gladys Ethel Constance Deighton

Herbert Thomas Cole
Gladys Ethel Constance Deighton
💍 1913/6831

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
26

Christchurch
Christchurch

4 days
22 years

Church of England, Papanui

13/6360

29 July 1913

Rev. E. H. Shore

No	575
Date of Notice	29 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Thomas Cole	Gladys Ethel Constance Deighton
	💍 1913/6831
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	4 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Papanui
Folio	13/6360
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. H. Shore

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).