Intentions to Marry, 1915 Kaikoura to Rakaia

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840461, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1915 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1915e contains pages 1973-2618, covering districts from Kaikoura to Rakaia

Page 2280

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1915

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

5 January 1915

Lewis Ernest Gill
Mary Elizabeth Sutton

Lewis Ernest Gill
Mary Elizabeth Sutton
💍 1915/7597

Widower 30.3.1911
Spinster

Engineer

34
32

Christchurch
Christchurch

34 years
29 years

Registrar's Office Christchurch

164

5 January 1915

Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Ernest Gill	Mary Elizabeth Sutton
	💍 1915/7597
Condition	Widower 30.3.1911	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	34 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	164
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

5 January 1915

Thomas Valentine Grimley
Elizabeth Forbes

Thomas Valentine Grimley
Elizabeth Forbes
💍 1915/12085

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Machinist

38
28

Christchurch
Christchurch

30 years
7 years

Baptist Church Oxford Terrace Christchurch

1641

5 January 1915

Rev. D. Carlisle Baptist

No	7
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Valentine Grimley	Elizabeth Forbes
	💍 1915/12085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Machinist
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	30 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Oxford Terrace Christchurch
Folio	1641
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Carlisle Baptist

5 January 1915

Ernest Frank Pearcy
Ella Agnes Wright

Ernest Frank Pearcy
Agnes Ella Wright
💍 1915/12221

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Cook

23
22

St. Albans
Christchurch

Life
3 years

St. Mary's Presbytery Manchester Street Christchurch

1654

5 January 1915

Rev. Dean F. Hills Roman Catholic

No	8
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Frank Pearcy	Ella Agnes Wright
BDM Match (71%)	Ernest Frank Pearcy	Agnes Ella Wright
	💍 1915/12221
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Cook
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	St. Albans	Christchurch
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Presbytery Manchester Street Christchurch
Folio	1654
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dean F. Hills Roman Catholic

5 January 1915

Bernard Patrick Moran
Mary Catherine Hamilton

Bernard Patrick Morau
Mary Catherine Hamilton
💍 1915/14258

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

23
26

Lincoln
Lincoln

8 years
Life

Roman Catholic Church Lincoln

1659

5 January 1915

Rev. J. O'Connor Roman Catholic

No	9
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard Patrick Moran	Mary Catherine Hamilton
BDM Match (98%)	Bernard Patrick Morau	Mary Catherine Hamilton
	💍 1915/14258
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Lincoln	Lincoln
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Lincoln
Folio	1659
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. O'Connor Roman Catholic

6 January 1915

Frederick Newton
Ellen May Mazey

Frederick Newton
Ellen May Mazey
💍 1915/9258

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman

33
33

Linwood
Linwood

33 years
33 years

Holy Trinity Church Avonside

1639

6 January 1915

Rev. D. FitzGerald Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	6 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Newton	Ellen May Mazey
	💍 1915/9258
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Linwood	Linwood
Length of Residence	33 years	33 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Avonside
Folio	1639
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. FitzGerald Anglican

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).