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 2281

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar William Nelson Poole

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

8 January 1914

William Lennox Paterson
Alice May Ashby

William Lennox Paterson
Alice May Ashley
💍 1914/7511

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

25
22

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

25 years
10 years

Methodist Church Kaiapoi

1375

8 January 1914

Rev A Mitchell

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lennox Paterson	Alice May Ashby
BDM Match (94%)	William Lennox Paterson	Alice May Ashley
	💍 1914/7511
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	25 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Kaiapoi
Folio	1375
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev A Mitchell

9 February 1914

Harold Alfred Wyatt
Emily Kate Brocklebank

Harold Alfred Wyatt
Emily Kate Brockelbank
💍 1914/7512

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic

21
21

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

21 years
6 weeks

The residence of Mr A H Wyatt, River Road Kaiapoi

1376

9 February 1914

Rev A Mitchell

No	2
Date of Notice	9 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Alfred Wyatt	Emily Kate Brocklebank
BDM Match (95%)	Harold Alfred Wyatt	Emily Kate Brockelbank
	💍 1914/7512
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	21 years	6 weeks
Marriage Place	The residence of Mr A H Wyatt, River Road Kaiapoi
Folio	1376
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev A Mitchell

27 February 1914

Allan Wallace Cochrane
Alice Kate Ching

Allan Wallace Cochrane
Alice Kate Ching
💍 1914/6718

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Knitter

25
18

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

3 days
18 years

The office of the Registrar Kaiapoi

395

Charles Ching (Father)

27 February 1914

W N Poole Registrar Births Deaths Marriages Kaiapoi

No	3
Date of Notice	27 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Wallace Cochrane	Alice Kate Ching
	💍 1914/6718
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Knitter
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	3 days	18 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar Kaiapoi
Folio	395
Consent	Charles Ching (Father)
Date of Certificate	27 February 1914
Officiating Minister	W N Poole Registrar Births Deaths Marriages Kaiapoi

17 March 1914

Percy Rollin Webb
Eveline McLazen Wright

Percy Rollin Webb
Eveline McLaren Wright
💍 1914/7513

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

25
23

Swannanoa
Swannanoa

3 days
10 years

Methodist Church Swannanoa

1377

17 March 1914

Rev J. F Martin

No	4
Date of Notice	17 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Rollin Webb	Eveline McLazen Wright
BDM Match (98%)	Percy Rollin Webb	Eveline McLaren Wright
	💍 1914/7513
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Swannanoa	Swannanoa
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Swannanoa
Folio	1377
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev J. F Martin

25 March 1914

Martin Ephraim Copland
Amy Carpenter

Martin Ephraim Copland
Amy Carpenter
💍 1914/5867

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

26
27

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

4 days
14 years

St Pauls Presbyterian Church Kaiapoi

3278

25 March 1914

Rev J. S Reed

No	5
Date of Notice	25 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Ephraim Copland	Amy Carpenter
	💍 1914/5867
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	4 days	14 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Presbyterian Church Kaiapoi
Folio	3278
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev J. S Reed

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).