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 1964

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar S. Tyson

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 October 1916

Walter Arthur Jesson
Lurline Alfreda Harvey

Walter Arthur Jesson
Lurline Alfreda Harvey
💍 1916/2764

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

48
21

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Nelson

16/7868

7 October 1916

S. Tyson, Registrar

No	69
Date of Notice	7 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Arthur Jesson	Lurline Alfreda Harvey
	💍 1916/2764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	48	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Nelson
Folio	16/7868
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 October 1916
Officiating Minister	S. Tyson, Registrar

10 October 1916

Arthur Win Harden
Mary Annie Graham

Arthur Win Wanden
Mary Anne Graham
💍 1916/2765

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter and paperhanger
Domestic duties

35
28

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
28 years

Church of Christ, Waimea Street, Nelson

16/7869

10 October 1916

Rev. P. A. Dickson, Church of Christ

No	70
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Win Harden	Mary Annie Graham
BDM Match (91%)	Arthur Win Wanden	Mary Anne Graham
	💍 1916/2765
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter and paperhanger	Domestic duties
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Waimea Street, Nelson
Folio	16/7869
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. A. Dickson, Church of Christ

16 October 1916

William Stanley Hill
Doris Buxton Chisnall

William Stanley Hill
Doris Buxton Chisnall
💍 1916/2709

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

26
24

Nelson
Stoke

26 years
24 years

The Church of St. Barnabas, Stoke

16/7871

16 October 1916

Rev. A. J. Carr, Church of England

No	71
Date of Notice	16 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stanley Hill	Doris Buxton Chisnall
	💍 1916/2709
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Stoke
Length of Residence	26 years	24 years
Marriage Place	The Church of St. Barnabas, Stoke
Folio	16/7871
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Carr, Church of England

31 October 1916

Eric Alfred Leggatt
Marion Grace Cock

Eric Alfred Leggatt
Marion Grace Cock
💍 1916/2698

Bachelor
Spinster

Submarine Telegraphy

41
24

Nelson
Nelson

4 months
24 years

Nelson Cathedral, Nelson

16/7870

31 October 1916

Right Rev. Bishop Mules, Church of England

No	72
Date of Notice	31 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Alfred Leggatt	Marion Grace Cock
	💍 1916/2698
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Submarine Telegraphy
Age	41	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	4 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Nelson Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	16/7870
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Right Rev. Bishop Mules, Church of England

13 November 1916

Theodore Norriss
Ruby Clifton Fountaine

Theodore Morriss
Ruby Clifton Fountaine
💍 1916/3002

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Milliner

24
24

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson

16/8214

13 November 1916

Rev. John A. Rogers, Church of England

No	73
Date of Notice	13 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Theodore Norriss	Ruby Clifton Fountaine
BDM Match (97%)	Theodore Morriss	Ruby Clifton Fountaine
	💍 1916/3002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Milliner
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	16/8214
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. John A. Rogers, 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).