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 2195

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar E. W. Cave

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 July 1915

Frank Judd Denton
Mary Catherine Duncan

Frank Hudd Denton
Mary Catherine Duncan
💍 1915/3841

Bachelor
Spinster

Town Clerk
Medical Nurse

37
30

Greymouth
Greymouth

5 years
9 years

Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth

6058

5 July 1915

Rev. J. A. Rogers

No	42
Date of Notice	5 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Judd Denton	Mary Catherine Duncan
BDM Match (97%)	Frank Hudd Denton	Mary Catherine Duncan
	💍 1915/3841
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Town Clerk	Medical Nurse
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	5 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	6058
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Rogers

20 July 1915

Jesse Baddeley
Eliza Gregory

Jesse Baddeley
Eliza Gregory
💍 1915/3824

Widower
Spinster

Miner
Cook

40
33

Runanga
Runanga

8 years
18 months

Methodist Church, Runanga

6065

20 July 1915

Rev. H. Ayrton

No	43
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jesse Baddeley	Eliza Gregory
	💍 1915/3824
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Cook
Age	40	33
Dwelling Place	Runanga	Runanga
Length of Residence	8 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Runanga
Folio	6065
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Ayrton

9 August 1915

William Gibson Stevenson
Ruby Spotswood Cunliffe

William Gibson Stevenson
Ruby Spotswood Cunliffe
💍 1915/3842

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Telephone Exchange Cadette

25
22

Reefton
Greymouth

2 years
22 years

Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth

6059

9 August 1915

Rev. J. A. Rogers

No	44
Date of Notice	9 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gibson Stevenson	Ruby Spotswood Cunliffe
	💍 1915/3842
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Telephone Exchange Cadette
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Reefton	Greymouth
Length of Residence	2 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	6059
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Rogers

13 August 1915

Morley Teague
Mary Eliza Rose Goodrich

Morley Teague
Mary Eliza Rose Goodrick
💍 1915/3839

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Saleswoman

36
37

Greymouth
Greymouth

3 days
4 years

Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth

6056

13 August 1915

Rev. J. A. Rogers

No	45
Date of Notice	13 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Morley Teague	Mary Eliza Rose Goodrich
BDM Match (98%)	Morley Teague	Mary Eliza Rose Goodrick
	💍 1915/3839
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Saleswoman
Age	36	37
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	6056
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Rogers

14 August 1915

Thomas Gerald Joyce
Mary Hill

Gerald Thomas Joyce
Mary Hill
💍 1915/4590

Thomas Brown
Marion Hill
💍 1915/2240

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

37
28

Greymouth
Greymouth

Life
Life

St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth

6692

14 August 1915

Rev. D. P. Carew

No	46
Date of Notice	14 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Gerald Joyce	Mary Hill
BDM Match (68%)	Gerald Thomas Joyce	Mary Hill
	💍 1915/4590
BDM Match (60%)	Thomas Brown	Marion Hill
	💍 1915/2240
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	6692
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. P. Carew

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).