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 2279

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1915

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

4 January 1915

Sidney Charles Ernest Baker
Nora Archey

Sidney Charles Ernest Bates
Nora Archey
💍 1915/9257

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

27
23

Christchurch
Burnham

27 years
15 years

All Saints Church Burnham

1638

4 January 1915

Rev. L. Hard, Anglican

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Charles Ernest Baker	Nora Archey
BDM Match (96%)	Sidney Charles Ernest Bates	Nora Archey
	💍 1915/9257
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Burnham
Length of Residence	27 years	15 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Burnham
Folio	1638
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. Hard, Anglican

4 January 1915

Arnold Colenso
Edith Malvena Bruce

Arnold Colenso
Edith Malvina Brier
💍 1915/9259

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

33
20

New Brighton
Richmond

Life
Life

Holy Trinity Church Avonside

1640

Edith Malvena Bruce, Mother

4 January 1915

Rev. O. Fitzgerald, Anglican

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arnold Colenso	Edith Malvena Bruce
BDM Match (89%)	Arnold Colenso	Edith Malvina Brier
	💍 1915/9259
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	New Brighton	Richmond
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Avonside
Folio	1640
Consent	Edith Malvena Bruce, Mother
Date of Certificate	4 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. O. Fitzgerald, Anglican

4 January 1915

Leslie Elared Strachan
Mildred Athole Frankish

Leslie Eldred Strachan
Mildred Athole Fraulrioh
💍 1915/14207

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster

23
21

Christchurch
Christchurch

15 days
20 years

Church of the Good Shepherd Phillipstown Christchurch

3026

4 January 1915

Rev. H. G. Ensor, Anglican

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Elared Strachan	Mildred Athole Frankish
BDM Match (89%)	Leslie Eldred Strachan	Mildred Athole Fraulrioh
	💍 1915/14207
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	15 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Good Shepherd Phillipstown Christchurch
Folio	3026
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Ensor, Anglican

5 January 1915

Ernest Alfred Simpson
Margaret Christopher

Ernest Alfred Empson
Margaret Christopher
💍 1915/7868

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Tailoress

24
28

Linwood
Waltham

12 years
5 years

Roman Catholic Cathedral Christchurch

1565

5 January 1915

Rev. D. W. Price, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Alfred Simpson	Margaret Christopher
BDM Match (95%)	Ernest Alfred Empson	Margaret Christopher
	💍 1915/7868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Tailoress
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Linwood	Waltham
Length of Residence	12 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral Christchurch
Folio	1565
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. W. Price, Roman Catholic

5 January 1915

Christian John Anderson
Margaret Saunders

Christian John Andersen
Margaret Saunders
💍 1915/7596

Bachelor
Widow (4. 2. 1909)

Mariner
Barmaid

27
28

Woolston
Linwood

4 years
8 years

Registrar's Office Christchurch

163

5 January 1915

Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	5 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christian John Anderson	Margaret Saunders
BDM Match (98%)	Christian John Andersen	Margaret Saunders
	💍 1915/7596
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (4. 2. 1909)
Profession	Mariner	Barmaid
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Woolston	Linwood
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	163
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).