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 1977

District of Kaikoura Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar Geo. G. Johnson

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

26 July 1915

Turner Charles Henry
Haines Daisy Mary

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

21
22

Kaikoura
Kaikoura

21 years
2 weeks

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

8522

26 July 1915

J. J. Kelly, Catholic Priest

No	11
Date of Notice	26 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Turner Charles Henry	Haines Daisy Mary
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Kaikoura	Kaikoura
Length of Residence	21 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Folio	8522
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1915
Officiating Minister	J. J. Kelly, Catholic Priest

16 August 1915

Dooley Francis
Harnett Sarah

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

27
24

Kaikoura
Kaikoura

5 years
24 years

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

8523

16 August 1915

J. J. Kelly, Catholic Priest

No	12
Date of Notice	16 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dooley Francis	Harnett Sarah
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Kaikoura	Kaikoura
Length of Residence	5 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Folio	8523
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1915
Officiating Minister	J. J. Kelly, Catholic Priest

23 August 1915

Harris Ernest Frank
Burney Gladys Amy May

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

19
17

Kaikoura
Kaikoura Suburban

19 years
17 years

Residence Brides Parents Kaikoura Suburban

5971

John William Harris Father. Lawrence Burney Father

23 August 1915

Rev. William McAra, Presbyterian

No	13
Date of Notice	23 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harris Ernest Frank	Burney Gladys Amy May
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	19	17
Dwelling Place	Kaikoura	Kaikoura Suburban
Length of Residence	19 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence Brides Parents Kaikoura Suburban
Folio	5971
Consent	John William Harris Father. Lawrence Burney Father
Date of Certificate	23 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. William McAra, Presbyterian

1 September 1915

Burnside Joseph
Matthews Mary Elsie

Widower
Spinster

Overseer
Cook

32
28

Kaikoura
Kaikoura

3 months
3 months

St Peters Anglican Church

5973

1 September 1915

Rev. A. J. S. Seaton, Anglican

No	14
Date of Notice	1 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Burnside Joseph	Matthews Mary Elsie
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Overseer	Cook
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Kaikoura	Kaikoura
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St Peters Anglican Church
Folio	5973
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. S. Seaton, Anglican

6 September 1915

Robinson Joseph Alexander
Boyd Annie Alice

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

34
23

Kaikoura
Kaikoura

32 years
23 years

St Peters Anglican Church

5972

6 September 1915

Rev. A. J. S. Seaton, Anglican

No	15
Date of Notice	6 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robinson Joseph Alexander	Boyd Annie Alice
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Kaikoura	Kaikoura
Length of Residence	32 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Anglican Church
Folio	5972
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. S. Seaton, 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).