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 2267

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 September 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

8 September 1915

Walter Warner Reddecliffe
Emma Fleetwood Bonnington

Walter Warner Reddecliffe
Emma Fleetwood Bonnington
💍 1915/3862

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

24
28

Hororata
Ashburton

3 days
20 years

Baring Square Church Ashburton

6080

8 September 1915

Rev. W. J. Elliott

No	57
Date of Notice	8 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Warner Reddecliffe	Emma Fleetwood Bonnington
	💍 1915/3862
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Hororata	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Baring Square Church Ashburton
Folio	6080
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Elliott

8 September 1915

Sydney Thompson
Jessie Green

Sydney Thompson
Jessie Green
💍 1915/3854

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

28
27

Winchmore
Allenton

3 days
3 years

Presbyterian Church Ashburton

6078

8 September 1915

Rev. George Miller

No	58
Date of Notice	8 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Thompson	Jessie Green
	💍 1915/3854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Winchmore	Allenton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	6078
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller

13 September 1915

Phillip Powell Frank Harris
Vera Maud De Nicol

Phillip Powell Frank Harris
Vera Maud McNicol
💍 1915/3861

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocers Assistant
Sales woman

29
22

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 years
2 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

6079

13 September 1915

Rev. George Miller

No	59
Date of Notice	13 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Phillip Powell Frank Harris	Vera Maud De Nicol
BDM Match (92%)	Phillip Powell Frank Harris	Vera Maud McNicol
	💍 1915/3861
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocers Assistant	Sales woman
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	6079
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller

14 September 1915

William Copland
Annie Alice Price

William Copland
Annie Alice Price
💍 1915/3843

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer
domestic duties

24
23

Chertsey
Chertsey

30 years
3 years

Presbyterian Church Chertsey

6077

14 September 1915

Rev. W. J. Todd

No	60
Date of Notice	14 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Copland	Annie Alice Price
	💍 1915/3843
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer	domestic duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Chertsey	Chertsey
Length of Residence	30 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Chertsey
Folio	6077
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Todd

17 September 1915

Frederick William Grossman
Margaret Hill

Frederick William Crossman
Margaret Lill
💍 1915/3835

Frederick William Bolwell
Margaret Durning
💍 1915/6052

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

23
22

Eiffelton
Willowby

18 months
22 years

Methodist Church Willowby

6076

17 September 1915

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow

No	61
Date of Notice	17 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Grossman	Margaret Hill
BDM Match (94%)	Frederick William Crossman	Margaret Lill
	💍 1915/3835
BDM Match (68%)	Frederick William Bolwell	Margaret Durning
	💍 1915/6052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Eiffelton	Willowby
Length of Residence	18 months	22 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Willowby
Folio	6076
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow

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).