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 1735

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar J. L. Bale

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

2 January 1917

John Griffin
Emeline Stella Libemann

John Griffin
Emmeline Stella Intemann
💍 1917/2080

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

25
19

Westport
Westport

25 years
19 years

Registrar's Office Westport

1219

Albert Heinrich Libemann

2 January 1917

J. P. O'Gorman, Deputy Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Griffin	Emeline Stella Libemann
BDM Match (92%)	John Griffin	Emmeline Stella Intemann
	💍 1917/2080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	25 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Westport
Folio	1219
Consent	Albert Heinrich Libemann
Date of Certificate	2 January 1917
Officiating Minister	J. P. O'Gorman, Deputy Registrar

6 January 1917

Hugh Cannon
Helen Kiddie Cooper

Hugh Cameron
Helen Keddie Cooper
💍 1917/2082

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman
Housemaid

30
24

Westport
Westport

2 weeks
3 months

Registrar's Office Westport

1220

6 January 1917

J. L. Bale, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	6 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Cannon	Helen Kiddie Cooper
BDM Match (85%)	Hugh Cameron	Helen Keddie Cooper
	💍 1917/2082
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman	Housemaid
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	2 weeks	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Westport
Folio	1220
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1917
Officiating Minister	J. L. Bale, Registrar

1 February 1917

Arthur Gladstone Detley
Alice Maud Bowater

Arthur Gladwyn Petley
Alice Maud Bowater
💍 1917/1314

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic

23
20

Wellington
Westport

4 days
20 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington

427

R. Bowater

1 February 1917

The Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	3
Date of Notice	1 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Gladstone Detley	Alice Maud Bowater
BDM Match (89%)	Arthur Gladwyn Petley	Alice Maud Bowater
	💍 1917/1314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Westport
Length of Residence	4 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington
Folio	427
Consent	R. Bowater
Date of Certificate	1 February 1917
Officiating Minister	The Rev. A. M. Johnson

5 February 1917

Christopher Barltrop Roberts
Ada Morrison

Christopher Carlile Roberts
Ada Harrison
💍 1917/2084

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

28
20

Westport
Westport

Since birth
3 years

Church of England Westport

1222

Henry Morrison

5 February 1917

The Rev. R. de Lambert

No	4
Date of Notice	5 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Barltrop Roberts	Ada Morrison
BDM Match (83%)	Christopher Carlile Roberts	Ada Harrison
	💍 1917/2084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	Since birth	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Westport
Folio	1222
Consent	Henry Morrison
Date of Certificate	5 February 1917
Officiating Minister	The Rev. R. de Lambert

8 February 1917

Henry Gardiner
Charlotte Rae

Henry Gardiner
Charlotte Rae
💍 1917/2083

Widower
Spinster

Baker
Housemaid

33
28

Westport
Westport

5 days
4 months

St John's Church, Packington Street, Westport

1221

8 February 1917

The Rev. J. H. Burrows

No	5
Date of Notice	8 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gardiner	Charlotte Rae
	💍 1917/2083
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Housemaid
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	5 days	4 months
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Packington Street, Westport
Folio	1221
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1917
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. H. Burrows

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).