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 2361

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 31 March 1914 Registrar H. Argeant

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

2 January 1914

Arthur Joseph Thompson
Isola Elsie Havergel Bell

Arthur Joseph Thompson
Isola Elsie Havengal Bell
💍 1914/8274

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Domestic Duties

27
23

Rangiora
Rangiora

27 years
23 years

Church of England, Rangiora

1890

2 January 1914

Rev. A. Fraer, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Joseph Thompson	Isola Elsie Havergel Bell
BDM Match (96%)	Arthur Joseph Thompson	Isola Elsie Havengal Bell
	💍 1914/8274
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Rangiora	Rangiora
Length of Residence	27 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Rangiora
Folio	1890
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Fraer, Church of England

22 January 1914

Thomas Shankland
Rose Alma Lilly

Thomas Shankland
Rose Alma Lilly
💍 1914/8275

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
Domestic Duties

32
25

Rangiora
Rangiora

27 years
25 years

Church of England, Rangiora

1891

22 January 1914

Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	22 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Shankland	Rose Alma Lilly
	💍 1914/8275
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	Domestic Duties
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Rangiora	Rangiora
Length of Residence	27 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Rangiora
Folio	1891
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

23 January 1914

Moses Hughes
Ivy Grace Martyn

Moses Hughes
Ivy Grace Martyn
💍 1914/7901

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
23

Southbrook
Southbrook

11 years
23 years

Methodist Church Southbrook, Rangiora

1394

23 January 1914

Rev. William Wills, Methodist Church

No	3
Date of Notice	23 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Moses Hughes	Ivy Grace Martyn
	💍 1914/7901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Southbrook	Southbrook
Length of Residence	11 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Southbrook, Rangiora
Folio	1394
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Wills, Methodist Church

3 February 1914

Samuel George John Stanton
Dinah Jackson

Samuel George John Stanton
Dinah Jackson
💍 1914/8276

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

37
38

Southbrook
Southbrook

24 years
24 years

Church of England, Southbrook

1892

3 February 1914

Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	3 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel George John Stanton	Dinah Jackson
	💍 1914/8276
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	37	38
Dwelling Place	Southbrook	Southbrook
Length of Residence	24 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Southbrook
Folio	1892
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

17 February 1914

Ihaia Te Wirihana
Mata Tewera Te Ura Parata

Thaia Te Wirihana
Mata Tewera Te Ura Parata
💍 1914/8277

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Domestic Duties

27
44

Tuahiwi
Tuahiwi

5 weeks
44 years

Church of England, Rangiora

14/1893

17 February 1914

Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	17 February 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ihaia Te Wirihana	Mata Tewera Te Ura Parata
BDM Match (97%)	Thaia Te Wirihana	Mata Tewera Te Ura Parata
	💍 1914/8277
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	44
Dwelling Place	Tuahiwi	Tuahiwi
Length of Residence	5 weeks	44 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Rangiora
Folio	14/1893
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. P. Fendall, Church of England

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).