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 2044

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 September 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

9 July 1914

Frederick Morton Mackenzie
Ivy Welsh

Frederick Morton Mackenzie
Ivy Welsh
💍 1914/2324

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
domestic duties

21
18

Tinwald
Tinwald

20 years
10 years

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

6048

Alfred Thomas Welsh father of Minor

9 July 1914

W. W. White

No	40
Date of Notice	9 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Morton Mackenzie	Ivy Welsh
	💍 1914/2324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	domestic duties
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Tinwald
Length of Residence	20 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	6048
Consent	Alfred Thomas Welsh father of Minor
Date of Certificate	9 July 1914
Officiating Minister	W. W. White

11 July 1914

David Reynolds Willis
Jessie May Burgess

David Reynolds Willis
Jessie May Burgess
💍 1914/2355

Bachelor
Spinster

Creamery Manager
domestic duties

29
21

Mayfield
Mayfield

3 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church Mayfield

6056

11 July 1914

Rev Peter Wilson

No	41
Date of Notice	11 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Reynolds Willis	Jessie May Burgess
	💍 1914/2355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Creamery Manager	domestic duties
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Mayfield	Mayfield
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Mayfield
Folio	6056
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev Peter Wilson

22 July 1914

James Stuart Hay
Annie McCullough Reid

James Stuart Hay
Annie McCullough Reid
💍 1914/2318

Bachelor
Spinster

Chauffeur
domestic duties

24
18

Ashburton
Tinwald

4 years
18 years

at the dwelling of Mr Walker 145 Peter Street Ashburton

6043

Deborah Reid, Widow, Mother of Minor

22 July 1914

Rev George Miller

No	42
Date of Notice	22 July 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Stuart Hay	Annie McCullough Reid
	💍 1914/2318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chauffeur	domestic duties
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Tinwald
Length of Residence	4 years	18 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of Mr Walker 145 Peter Street Ashburton
Folio	6043
Consent	Deborah Reid, Widow, Mother of Minor
Date of Certificate	22 July 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev George Miller

1 August 1914

Charles Ogilvie Davidson
Mary Jane Smith

Charles Ogilvie Davidson
Mary Jane Smith
💍 1914/2319

George Garrick Watt
Mary Jane Smith
💍 1914/855

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
domestic duties

27
27

Allenton
Ashburton

9 years
27 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

6044

1 August 1914

Rev George Miller

No	44
Date of Notice	1 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ogilvie Davidson	Mary Jane Smith
	💍 1914/2319
BDM Match (60%)	George Garrick Watt	Mary Jane Smith
	💍 1914/855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	domestic duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Allenton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	9 years	27 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	6044
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1914
Officiating Minister	Rev George Miller

4 August 1914

John Pritchard
Clara Hunt

John Pritchard
Clara Hunt
💍 1914/2325

Widower
Widow

Mechanic
domestic duties

62
46

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days
7 months

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

6049

4 August 1914

W. W. White Registrar

No	45
Date of Notice	4 August 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Pritchard	Clara Hunt
	💍 1914/2325
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Mechanic	domestic duties
Age	62	46
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	6049
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1914
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

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).