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 2041

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 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

30 May 1914

Horace Henry Mitchell
Ella Kate Dalley

Horace Henry Mitchell
Ella Kate Dalley
💍 1914/6012

Bachelor
Spinster

Teamster
domestic duties

22
19

Longbeach
Longbeach

18 months
8 years

Church of England Longbeach

3246

Kate Turner Mother of Minor

30 May 1914

Rev. A. B. Jones

No	24
Date of Notice	30 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Henry Mitchell	Ella Kate Dalley
	💍 1914/6012
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teamster	domestic duties
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Longbeach	Longbeach
Length of Residence	18 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Longbeach
Folio	3246
Consent	Kate Turner Mother of Minor
Date of Certificate	30 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Jones

30 May 1914

Samuel Alexander Moore
Ella Mary Baker

Samuel Alexander Moore
Ella Mary Baker
💍 1914/6013

Thomas Alexander Lovie
Clara May Baker
💍 1914/6769

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
domestic duties

25
26

Netherby
Ashburton

10 years
26 years

Baring Square Church Ashburton

3247

30 May 1914

Rev. W. J. Elliott

No	25
Date of Notice	30 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Alexander Moore	Ella Mary Baker
	💍 1914/6013
BDM Match (66%)	Thomas Alexander Lovie	Clara May Baker
	💍 1914/6769
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	domestic duties
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Netherby	Ashburton
Length of Residence	10 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Baring Square Church Ashburton
Folio	3247
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Elliott

1 June 1914

Raymond Joseph Tucker
Winifred Mary Isabella Low

Raymond Joseph Tucker
Winifred Mary Isabella Low
💍 1914/6016

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant
domestic duties

56
27

Allenton
Allenton

56 years
5 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

3250

1 June 1914

Rev. Geo. Miller

No	26
Date of Notice	1 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Joseph Tucker	Winifred Mary Isabella Low
	💍 1914/6016
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant	domestic duties
Age	56	27
Dwelling Place	Allenton	Allenton
Length of Residence	56 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	3250
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 June 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Miller

2 June 1914

Alexander Rutherford Lamb
Joan Turpie Gregory

Alexander Rutherford Lamb
Joan Turpie Gregory
💍 1914/5774

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

31
20

Ashburton
Ashburton

12 months
12 months

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

3251

No person resident in New Zealand having authority to give consent

17 June 1914

Rev. Geo. Miller

No	27
Date of Notice	2 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Rutherford Lamb	Joan Turpie Gregory
	💍 1914/5774
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	3251
Consent	No person resident in New Zealand having authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	17 June 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Miller

5 June 1914

Alfred John Bennison
Lucy Emily Brannan

Alfred John Bennison
Lucy Emily Brannen
💍 1914/6015

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

33
25

Mitcham Road
Mayfield

30 years
25 years

Presbyterian Church Mayfield

3249

5 June 1914

Rev. G. H. Pritchett

No	28
Date of Notice	5 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred John Bennison	Lucy Emily Brannan
BDM Match (97%)	Alfred John Bennison	Lucy Emily Brannen
	💍 1914/6015
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	33	25
Dwelling Place	Mitcham Road	Mayfield
Length of Residence	30 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Mayfield
Folio	3249
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 June 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Pritchett

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).