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 2309

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

151

24 February 1915

Emile Pierre Pio Malaquin
Doris Grace Richards

Emile Pierre Pio Malaquin
Doris Grace Richards
💍 1915/380

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

19
19

New Brighton
New Brighton

8 years
4 years

Registrar's Office Christchurch

188

Waldemar Stanislas Malaquin and Richard Sampson Richards, Fathers

24 February 1915

Registrar

No	151
Date of Notice	24 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Emile Pierre Pio Malaquin	Doris Grace Richards
	💍 1915/380
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	New Brighton	New Brighton
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	188
Consent	Waldemar Stanislas Malaquin and Richard Sampson Richards, Fathers
Date of Certificate	24 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

152

25 February 1915

Horace Leonard Lee
Maude Rosina May

Horace Leonard Lee
Maude Rosina May
💍 1915/381

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
23

Addington
Linwood

2 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Christchurch

189

25 February 1915

Registrar

No	152
Date of Notice	25 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Leonard Lee	Maude Rosina May
	💍 1915/381
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Addington	Linwood
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	189
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

153

25 February 1915

Geoffrey William Douglas Mulgan
Doris Leyde McIntyre

Geoffrey William Douglas Mulgan
Doris Leyde McIntyre
💍 1915/9388

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor
Musician

27
26

Auckland
Christchurch

26 years

St. Luke's Church Christchurch

1726

25 February 1915

Rev. F. N. Taylor Anglican

No	153
Date of Notice	25 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey William Douglas Mulgan	Doris Leyde McIntyre
	💍 1915/9388
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor	Musician
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Christchurch
Length of Residence		26 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church Christchurch
Folio	1726
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. N. Taylor Anglican

154

25 February 1915

William Henry Berry
Ruby Kendall Forbes

William Henry Berry
Ruby Fendall Forbes
💍 1915/12206

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Clerk

27
22

Sydenham
Sydenham

6 months
21 years

St. David's Church Sydenham

1663

25 February 1915

Rev. C. Murray Presbyterian

No	154
Date of Notice	25 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Berry	Ruby Kendall Forbes
BDM Match (97%)	William Henry Berry	Ruby Fendall Forbes
	💍 1915/12206
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Clerk
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Sydenham
Length of Residence	6 months	21 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church Sydenham
Folio	1663
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Murray Presbyterian

155

26 February 1915

James Hamilton Scobie
Amy Barton Parsons

James Hamilton Scobie
Amy Barton Parsons
💍 1915/12203

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
21

Riccarton
Riccarton

2 years
5 months

St. Mary's Church Addington

1660

26 February 1915

Rev. W. S. Bean Anglican

No	155
Date of Notice	26 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hamilton Scobie	Amy Barton Parsons
	💍 1915/12203
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Riccarton	Riccarton
Length of Residence	2 years	5 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church Addington
Folio	1660
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Bean Anglican

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).