Intentions to Marry, 1914 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840456, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1914 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1914a), Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1914b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1914c).

Page 2035

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar William Winsbury White

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

19 January 1914

Francis Spargoe Nicholls
Annie Emma Stephens

Francis Spargoe Nicholls
Annie Emma Stephens
💍 1914/6713

Widower
Widow

Painter
domestic duties

29
26

Ashburton
Ashburton

26 years
26 years

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

391

19 January 1914

W. W. White Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	19 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Spargoe Nicholls	Annie Emma Stephens
	💍 1914/6713
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Painter	domestic duties
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	26 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	391
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1914
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

29 January 1914

William Henry Jeffs
Sarah Crisp

William Henry Jeffs
Sarah Crisp
💍 1914/6714

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
domestic duties

33
27

Springfield Winchmore
Methven

3 days

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

392

29 January 1914

W. W. White Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	29 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Jeffs	Sarah Crisp
	💍 1914/6714
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	domestic duties
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Springfield Winchmore	Methven
Length of Residence	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	392
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1914
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

30 January 1914

William Richard Julian
Alice Gregson

William Richard Julian
Alice Gregson
💍 1914/6715

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
domestic duties

29
26

Methven
Methven

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

393

30 January 1914

W. W. White Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	30 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Richard Julian	Alice Gregson
	💍 1914/6715
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	domestic duties
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Methven	Methven
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	393
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1914
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

10 February 1914

Thomas Gethick
Rosamond Bonnington

Thomas Pethwick
Rosamond Bonnington
💍 1914/9145

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Teacher

35
37

Hampstead
Ashburton

6 years
10 years

Baring Square Church Ashburton

4242

10 February 1914

Rev. W. J. Elliott

No	4
Date of Notice	10 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Gethick	Rosamond Bonnington
BDM Match (93%)	Thomas Pethwick	Rosamond Bonnington
	💍 1914/9145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Teacher
Age	35	37
Dwelling Place	Hampstead	Ashburton
Length of Residence	6 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Baring Square Church Ashburton
Folio	4242
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Elliott

11 February 1914

Francis Edward Shearer
Grace Wilson

Francis Edward Shearer
Grace Wilson
💍 1914/7555

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
domestic duties

24
22

Gisborne
Tinwald

3 days
22 years

Church of England Tinwald

1642

11 February 1914

Rev. H. B. Jones

No	5
Date of Notice	11 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Edward Shearer	Grace Wilson
	💍 1914/7555
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	domestic duties
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Tinwald
Length of Residence	3 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Tinwald
Folio	1642
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Jones

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).