Intentions to Marry, 1917 Kaikoura to Rakaia

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840473, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1917 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.

1917e contains pages 1665-2196, covering districts from Kaikoura to Rakaia

Page 1703

District of Ahaura Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar C. C. Richard

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

15 January 1917

Hugh Scanlon
Mary Healey

Hugh Scanlon
Mary Healey
💍 1917/2073

Bachelor
Spinster

Wine & Spirit Merchant
Domestic Duties

41
34

Totara Flat
Totara Flat

4 years 3 days
4 years 3 days

In the Roman Catholic Church at Ahaura

1212

15 January 1917

Rev. Father Seward, Roman Catholic Priest, Ahaura

No	26
Date of Notice	15 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Scanlon	Mary Healey
	💍 1917/2073
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wine & Spirit Merchant	Domestic Duties
Age	41	34
Dwelling Place	Totara Flat	Totara Flat
Length of Residence	4 years 3 days	4 years 3 days
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church at Ahaura
Folio	1212
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Seward, Roman Catholic Priest, Ahaura

20 January 1917

Thomas Kerr
Georgina Eva Bowers

Thomas Kerr
Georgina Eva Bowers
💍 1917/2075

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

24
21

Blackball
Blackball

9 years
1 year

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages at Ahaura

1214

20 January 1917

C. C. Richard, Registrar of Marriages, Val. [Ahaura]

No	27
Date of Notice	20 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Kerr	Georgina Eva Bowers
	💍 1917/2075
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Blackball	Blackball
Length of Residence	9 years	1 year
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages at Ahaura
Folio	1214
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1917
Officiating Minister	C. C. Richard, Registrar of Marriages, Val. [Ahaura]

1 February 1917

Albert Clarke
Mary Maud Riddiford

Albert Clarke
Mary Maud Riddiford
💍 1917/2074

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

22
19

Blackball
Ngahere

4 years
14 years

In the Roman Catholic Church at Blackball

1213

G. W. Riddiford, Father of Mary Maud Riddiford

1 February 1917

Rev. Father Hanrahan, Roman Catholic Priest, Ahaura

No	28
Date of Notice	1 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Clarke	Mary Maud Riddiford
	💍 1917/2074
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Blackball	Ngahere
Length of Residence	4 years	14 years
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church at Blackball
Folio	1213
Consent	G. W. Riddiford, Father of Mary Maud Riddiford
Date of Certificate	1 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Hanrahan, Roman Catholic Priest, Ahaura

13 March 1917

Alexander Paterson
Ada Maloney M.N. Love

Alexander Paterson
Ada Maloney
💍 1917/2395

Bachelor
Widow

Miner
Domestic

25
28

Blackball
Blackball

1 year
2 years

In the Anglican Church at Blackball

1560

13 March 1917

Rev. J. W. Bloyce, Anglican Clergyman, Blackball

No	29
Date of Notice	13 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Paterson	Ada Maloney M.N. Love
BDM Match (76%)	Alexander Paterson	Ada Maloney
	💍 1917/2395
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Blackball	Blackball
Length of Residence	1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	In the Anglican Church at Blackball
Folio	1560
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Bloyce, Anglican Clergyman, Blackball

22 March 1917

James Park
Annie Kerr

James Park
Annie Kerr
💍 1917/2072

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

24
21

Blackball
Blackball

18 months
10 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Ahaura

1211

22 March 1917

C. C. Richard, Registrar of Marriages, Ahaura

No	30
Date of Notice	22 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Park	Annie Kerr
	💍 1917/2072
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Blackball	Blackball
Length of Residence	18 months	10 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Ahaura
Folio	1211
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1917
Officiating Minister	C. C. Richard, Registrar of Marriages, Ahaura

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).