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 2675

District of Kurow Quarter ending 30 June 1914 Registrar John Pickard

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 April 1914

George Arnold Winter
Harriet Isabel Sawell

George Arnold Waiter
Harriet Isabel Sawrll
💍 1914/988

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic duties

32 years
26 years

Hakataramea
Warrington

1 year 6 months
3 Days

Presbyterian Church at Warrington

4554

2 April 1914

Rev. Rutherford Waddell

No	1
Date of Notice	2 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Arnold Winter	Harriet Isabel Sawell
BDM Match (93%)	George Arnold Waiter	Harriet Isabel Sawrll
	💍 1914/988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic duties
Age	32 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Hakataramea	Warrington
Length of Residence	1 year 6 months	3 Days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church at Warrington
Folio	4554
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Rutherford Waddell

13 April 1914

Francis Samuel Templeton
Janet Mee Anderson

Francis Samuel Templeton
Janet Mee Anderson
💍 1914/6159

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

30 years
28 years

Kurow
Kurow

3 Days
28 years

Presbyterian Church Kurow

3677

13 April 1914

Rev. Thos Neave

No	2
Date of Notice	13 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Samuel Templeton	Janet Mee Anderson
	💍 1914/6159
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	30 years	28 years
Dwelling Place	Kurow	Kurow
Length of Residence	3 Days	28 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kurow
Folio	3677
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos Neave

13 April 1914

John Morton Thom
Ethel Elizabeth Mary Smart

John Morton Thom
Ethel Elizabeth Mary Smart
💍 1914/6166

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

28 years
23 years

Kurow
Kurow

3 Days
23 years

Presbyterian Church Kurow

3678

13 April 1914

Rev. Thos Neave

No	3
Date of Notice	13 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Morton Thom	Ethel Elizabeth Mary Smart
	💍 1914/6166
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	28 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Kurow	Kurow
Length of Residence	3 Days	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kurow
Folio	3678
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos Neave

28 April 1914

Peter Joseph Hughes
Anna Mary Thomas

Peter Joseph Hughes
Anna Mary Thomas
💍 1914/6153

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxicab driver
Domestic Servant

33 years
24 years

Otekaike
Otekaike

3 Days
7 Days

Dwelling of Richard Thomas, Otekaike

3689

28 April 1914

Rev. H. S. Bishop

No	4
Date of Notice	28 April 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Joseph Hughes	Anna Mary Thomas
	💍 1914/6153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxicab driver	Domestic Servant
Age	33 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Otekaike	Otekaike
Length of Residence	3 Days	7 Days
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Richard Thomas, Otekaike
Folio	3689
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. S. Bishop

19 May 1914

Robert George McNair
Lilian Catherine Gard

Robert George McNair
Lilian Catherine Gard
💍 1914/6167

Bachelor
Spinster

Station manager
Domestic

28 years
21 years

Strachans
Strachans

3 Days
21 years

Residence of William Gard, Strachans

3679

19 May 1914

Rev. Thos Neave

No	5
Date of Notice	19 May 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert George McNair	Lilian Catherine Gard
	💍 1914/6167
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station manager	Domestic
Age	28 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Strachans	Strachans
Length of Residence	3 Days	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Gard, Strachans
Folio	3679
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 May 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos Neave

24 June 1914

Alec McGoun
Savannah Louisa McAughtrie

Alec McGoun
Lavannah Louisa McAughtrie
💍 1914/6168

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Dressmaker

40 years
24 years

Omarama
Kurow

19 years
3 Days

Presbyterian Church Kurow

3680

24 June 1914

Rev. Thos Neave

No	6
Date of Notice	24 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alec McGoun	Savannah Louisa McAughtrie
BDM Match (98%)	Alec McGoun	Lavannah Louisa McAughtrie
	💍 1914/6168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Dressmaker
Age	40 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Omarama	Kurow
Length of Residence	19 years	3 Days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kurow
Folio	3680
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos Neave

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).