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 2092

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1916

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

04 January 1916

George Sloan
Mary Burke

George Sloan
Mary Burke
💍 1916/4579

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
21

Christchurch
Christchurch

12 years
5 years

Roman Catholic Cathedral Barbadoes St. Christchurch

1885

04 January 1916

Rev. T. W. Price R.C.

No	6
Date of Notice	04 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Sloan	Mary Burke
	💍 1916/4579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	12 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral Barbadoes St. Christchurch
Folio	1885
Consent
Date of Certificate	04 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. W. Price R.C.

04 January 1916

Robert Bruce Johnstone
Ada Bowers

Robert Bruce Johnstone
Ada Bowers
💍 1916/4580

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
20

Christchurch
Papanui

2 weeks
6 months

St Mary's Church Merivale

1886

John Bowers, Father

04 January 1916

Rev. P. A. Haggitt Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	04 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Bruce Johnstone	Ada Bowers
	💍 1916/4580
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Papanui
Length of Residence	2 weeks	6 months
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Merivale
Folio	1886
Consent	John Bowers, Father
Date of Certificate	04 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. A. Haggitt Anglican

05 January 1916

Albert Charles James Lawson (name by adoption. name at birth unknown)
Evelyn May Stephens

Albert Charles James Lawson
Evelyn May Stephens
💍 1916/4581

Bachelor
Spinster

Brewery Employee

27
22

Woolston
Sydenham

20 years
7 years

St. Marks Church Opawa

1887

05 January 1916

Rev. H. Williams Anglican

No	8
Date of Notice	05 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Charles James Lawson (name by adoption. name at birth unknown)	Evelyn May Stephens
BDM Match (70%)	Albert Charles James Lawson	Evelyn May Stephens
	💍 1916/4581
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Brewery Employee
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Woolston	Sydenham
Length of Residence	20 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church Opawa
Folio	1887
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Williams Anglican

05 January 1916

Patrick John Cosgrove
Hannah Mary Murphy

Patrick John Cosgrove
Hannah Mary Grigsby
💍 1916/4582

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller
Milliner

26
24

Christchurch
Christchurch

14 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Cathedral Barbadoes St. Christchurch

1888

05 January 1916

Rev. T. W. Price R.C.

No	9
Date of Notice	05 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick John Cosgrove	Hannah Mary Murphy
BDM Match (84%)	Patrick John Cosgrove	Hannah Mary Grigsby
	💍 1916/4582
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller	Milliner
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	14 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral Barbadoes St. Christchurch
Folio	1888
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. W. Price R.C.

05 January 1916

Graham Augustus Bird
Edith Victoria Fisher

Graham Augustus Bird
Edith Victoria Fisher
💍 1916/4583

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Tailoress

30
24

Sydenham
Sydenham

2 years
2 years

St. Michael's Church Christchurch

1889

05 January 1916

Rev. C. Coates Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	05 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Graham Augustus Bird	Edith Victoria Fisher
	💍 1916/4583
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Tailoress
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Sydenham
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Michael's Church Christchurch
Folio	1889
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Coates 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).