Intentions to Marry, 1916 Kaikoura to Rakaia

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840467, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1916 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.

1916e contains pages 1803-2396, covering districts from Kaikoura to Rakaia

Page 1827

District of Wairau Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar C. O. Brownson

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

1/16

4 January 1916

Horace Edwin Suckling
Margaret Rebecca McCallum

Horace Edwin Suckling
Margaret Rebecca McCallum
💍 1916/4005

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist
Domestic

25
25

Blenheim
Blenheim

3 days
25 years

Registrar's Office, Blenheim

16/1108

4 January 1916

Mr. C. O. Brownson, Registrar

No	1/16
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Edwin Suckling	Margaret Rebecca McCallum
	💍 1916/4005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist	Domestic
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Blenheim
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Blenheim
Folio	16/1108
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Mr. C. O. Brownson, Registrar

2/16

4 January 1916

Albert William Taylor
Annie Lavinia Saunders

Albert William Taylor
Annie Lavinia Saunders
💍 1916/4002

Bachelor
Spinster

Sergeant N.Z. Expeditionary forces
Tailoress

28
26

Blenheim
Blenheim

4 weeks
2 months

Church of England, Blenheim

16/1105

4 January 1916

Ven. Archdeacon T. S. Grace, Church of England

No	2/16
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert William Taylor	Annie Lavinia Saunders
	💍 1916/4002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sergeant N.Z. Expeditionary forces	Tailoress
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Blenheim
Length of Residence	4 weeks	2 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Blenheim
Folio	16/1105
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Ven. Archdeacon T. S. Grace, Church of England

3/16

13 January 1916

Gilbert James Gill
Edith Helen Jones

Gilbert James Gill
Edith Helen Jones
💍 1916/4001

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Hand
Domestic

23
25

Grovetown
Grovetown

23 years
25 years

Residence of Mr. W. Jones, Grovetown

16/1104

13 January 1916

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	3/16
Date of Notice	13 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert James Gill	Edith Helen Jones
	💍 1916/4001
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Hand	Domestic
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Grovetown	Grovetown
Length of Residence	23 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Jones, Grovetown
Folio	16/1104
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

4/16

18 January 1916

Herbert Milward Nation
Edith Amelia Jones

Herbert Milward Nation
Ethel Amelia Jones
💍 1916/4000

Bachelor
Spinster

Cordial manufacturer
Domestic

22
23

Blenheim
Grovetown

8 years
23 years

Residence of Mr. W. Jones, Grovetown

16/1103

18 January 1916

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	4/16
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Milward Nation	Edith Amelia Jones
BDM Match (89%)	Herbert Milward Nation	Ethel Amelia Jones
	💍 1916/4000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cordial manufacturer	Domestic
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Grovetown
Length of Residence	8 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Jones, Grovetown
Folio	16/1103
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

5/16

20 January 1916

Albert Maitland Simmons
Iris Constance Hill

Albert Maitland Simmons
Iris Constance Hill
💍 1916/4006

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

30
20

Blenheim
Blenheim

30 years
20 years

Church of England, Blenheim

16/1109

Charles Benjamin Hill, father

20 January 1916

Rev. H. B. W. White, Church of England

No	5/16
Date of Notice	20 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Maitland Simmons	Iris Constance Hill
	💍 1916/4006
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Blenheim
Length of Residence	30 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Blenheim
Folio	16/1109
Consent	Charles Benjamin Hill, father
Date of Certificate	20 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. W. White, Church of England

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).