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 2053

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar Arnold William Mann

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

10 July 1915

William Gilbert Sutherland Harper
Marion Mowat

William Gilbert Harper Sutherland
Marion Mowat
💍 1915/3787

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

31
31

Westport
Westport

4 days
4 days

Residence of J. Anderson, Westport

6004

10 July 1915

Rev. Ben Dudley, Methodist

No	17
Date of Notice	10 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gilbert Sutherland Harper	Marion Mowat
BDM Match (79%)	William Gilbert Harper Sutherland	Marion Mowat
	💍 1915/3787
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Anderson, Westport
Folio	6004
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Ben Dudley, Methodist

16 August 1915

Frederick Robert Rutledge
Florence Alice Symonds

Frederick Robert Rutledge
Florence Alice Symonds
💍 1915/3779

Bachelor
Spinster

Cranedriver

23
23

Westport
Westport

5 years
23 years

Church of England, Westport

6002

16 August 1915

Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

No	18
Date of Notice	16 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Robert Rutledge	Florence Alice Symonds
	💍 1915/3779
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cranedriver
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	5 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Westport
Folio	6002
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

19 August 1915

Herbert Tasman Atchison
Agnes Wallace Dunbar

Herbert Tasman Atchison
Agnes McCullam Dunbar
💍 1915/3884

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
23

Westport
Westport

26 years
4 months

Presbyterian Church, Westport

6000

19 August 1915

Rev. J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

No	19
Date of Notice	19 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Tasman Atchison	Agnes Wallace Dunbar
BDM Match (86%)	Herbert Tasman Atchison	Agnes McCullam Dunbar
	💍 1915/3884
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	26 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Westport
Folio	6000
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Burrows, Presbyterian

30 August 1915

John Corbett
Doris Amelia Greenland

John Corbett
Doris Amelia Greenland
💍 1915/3786

Bachelor
Spinster

Platelayer

36
22

Westport
Westport

8 years
22 years

Residence John Corbett, Low Westport

6003

30 August 1915

Rev. James Arkwright, Roman Catholic

No	20
Date of Notice	30 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Corbett	Doris Amelia Greenland
	💍 1915/3786
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Platelayer
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	8 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence John Corbett, Low Westport
Folio	6003
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Arkwright, Roman Catholic

15 September 1915

Joseph Zenson
Mary Evelyn Simpson

Joseph Fensom
Mary Evelyn Simpson
💍 1915/3768

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer

37
43

Westport
Westport

6 days
6 days

Residence L. Morgan, 104 Queen St, Westport

6001

15 September 1915

Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

No	21
Date of Notice	15 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Zenson	Mary Evelyn Simpson
BDM Match (92%)	Joseph Fensom	Mary Evelyn Simpson
	💍 1915/3768
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	43
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Residence L. Morgan, 104 Queen St, Westport
Folio	6001
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Coursey, 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).