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 2259

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 1915 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

1 April 1915

William Leslie Brown
Alma Eunice Staples

William Leslie Brown
Alma Emmie Staples
💍 1915/2090

Bachelor
Widow

farm labourer
domestic duties

25
28

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 years
3 years

Presbyterian Church Ashburton

3966

1 April 1915

Rev. George Miller

No	32
Date of Notice	1 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Leslie Brown	Alma Eunice Staples
BDM Match (92%)	William Leslie Brown	Alma Emmie Staples
	💍 1915/2090
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	farm labourer	domestic duties
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	3966
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller

1 April 1915

Robert Tyson Hodgson
Lily Maude Hewitt

Robert Tyson Hodgson
Lily Maude Hewitt
💍 1915/2216

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Teacher

31
29

Ashburton
Ashburton

31 years
2 years

St Stephens Church of England Ashburton

4120

1 April 1915

Rev. J. R. Burgin

No	33
Date of Notice	1 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Tyson Hodgson	Lily Maude Hewitt
	💍 1915/2216
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Teacher
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	31 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church of England Ashburton
Folio	4120
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Burgin

2 April 1915

Dudley Henry Taft
Flora Lillian Roper

Dudley Henry Tatt
Flora Lillian Roper
💍 1915/2103

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook
domestic duties

31
21

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

3955

2 April 1915

W. W. White. Registrar.

No	34
Date of Notice	2 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dudley Henry Taft	Flora Lillian Roper
BDM Match (97%)	Dudley Henry Tatt	Flora Lillian Roper
	💍 1915/2103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook	domestic duties
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	3955
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1915
Officiating Minister	W. W. White. Registrar.

14 April 1915

Bryce Henry
Violet Parlett

Bryce Henry
Violet Parlett
💍 1915/2091

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable
Domestic duties

25
30

Hastings
Ashburton

3 days
14 days

Presbyterian Manse Ashburton

3967

14 April 1915

Rev. George Miller

No	35
Date of Notice	14 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bryce Henry	Violet Parlett
	💍 1915/2091
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable	Domestic duties
Age	25	30
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Ashburton
Folio	3967
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller

19 April 1915

William John Roulston
Lucy Amelia Skilling

William John Roulston
Lucy Amelia Skelling
💍 1915/2089

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

29
19

Presbyterian Church Trevorton
Tinwald

19 years
9 years

Presbyterian church Tinwald

3965

William Cochrane Skilling father of minor

19 April 1915

Rev. J. C. Mill.

No	36
Date of Notice	19 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Roulston	Lucy Amelia Skilling
BDM Match (98%)	William John Roulston	Lucy Amelia Skelling
	💍 1915/2089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Presbyterian Church Trevorton	Tinwald
Length of Residence	19 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian church Tinwald
Folio	3965
Consent	William Cochrane Skilling father of minor
Date of Certificate	19 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Mill.

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).