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 2076

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar W. W. 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

7 February 1916

Thomas Vernon Wilkinson
Frances Bridget Turner

Thomas Vernon Wilkinson
Frances Bridget Turner
💍 1916/4080

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

22
20

Highbank
Allenton

22 years
20 years

at the dwelling of C. Turner Allenton

1208

Henry Granaway Turner father of Minor

7 February 1916

Rev. Geo. K. Aitken

No	6
Date of Notice	7 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Vernon Wilkinson	Frances Bridget Turner
	💍 1916/4080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Highbank	Allenton
Length of Residence	22 years	20 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of C. Turner Allenton
Folio	1208
Consent	Henry Granaway Turner father of Minor
Date of Certificate	7 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. K. Aitken

23 February 1916

John Fargher
Emily Selina Davies

John Fargher
Emily Selina Davies
💍 1916/4081

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

24
22

Fairfield
Fairfield

3 months
6 months

Baring Square Church Ashburton

1209

23 February 1916

Rev. W. J. Elliott

No	7
Date of Notice	23 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fargher	Emily Selina Davies
	💍 1916/4081
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Fairfield	Fairfield
Length of Residence	3 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Baring Square Church Ashburton
Folio	1209
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Elliott

6 March 1916

Henry Ivan Penrose
Florence Elizabeth Ellis

Henry Ivan Penrose
Florence Elizabeth Ellis
💍 1916/8536

Bachelor
Spinster

farm labourer
domestic duties

25
23

Hinds
Hinds

2 years
23 years

at the dwelling of J. J. Ellis Hinds

1205

6 March 1916

Rev. W. J. Elliott

No	8
Date of Notice	6 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Ivan Penrose	Florence Elizabeth Ellis
	💍 1916/8536
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farm labourer	domestic duties
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Hinds	Hinds
Length of Residence	2 years	23 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of J. J. Ellis Hinds
Folio	1205
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Elliott

15 March 1916

Alexander Johnson
Josephine Hannah Clark

Alexander Johnson
Josephine Hannah Clark
💍 1916/4078

Bachelor
Spinster

Trooper 11th C.
domestic duties

35
25

Ashburton
Tinwald

4 days
25 years

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1206

15 March 1916

W. W. White Registrar

No	9
Date of Notice	15 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Johnson	Josephine Hannah Clark
	💍 1916/4078
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Trooper 11th C.	domestic duties
Age	35	25
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Tinwald
Length of Residence	4 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1206
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1916
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

18 March 1916

John Henry Baker
Ada Emily Butler

John Henry Baker
Ada Emily Butler
💍 1916/4076

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
domestic duties

34
21

Seafield Road
Ashburton

8 years
2 months

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1204

18 March 1916

W. W. White Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	18 March 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Baker	Ada Emily Butler
	💍 1916/4076
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	domestic duties
Age	34	21
Dwelling Place	Seafield Road	Ashburton
Length of Residence	8 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1204
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1916
Officiating Minister	W. W. White 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).