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 1811

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1917 Registrar J. 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

2 April 1917

William Stewart
Eliza Close

William Stewart
Eliza Close
💍 1917/3757

Widower
Spinster

Storeman
Domestic duties

58
50

Nelson
Nelson

36 years
50 years

Salvation Army Citadel, Waimea Street, Nelson

17/3003

2 April 1917

Adjutant Parker, Salvation Army

No	20
Date of Notice	2 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stewart	Eliza Close
	💍 1917/3757
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Domestic duties
Age	58	50
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	36 years	50 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Citadel, Waimea Street, Nelson
Folio	17/3003
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Adjutant Parker, Salvation Army

4 April 1917

Francis Charles James Cockburn
Mary Quartly Melhuish

Francis Charles James Cockburn
Mary Quartly Melhuish
💍 1917/3761

Widower 7/8/1914
Widow September 1914

Director of Nelson Technical School

47
47

Nelson
Nelson

7 years
24 years

Christ church Cathedral, Nelson

17/3007

4 April 1917

Rev. G. E. Weeks, Church of England

No	21
Date of Notice	4 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Charles James Cockburn	Mary Quartly Melhuish
	💍 1917/3761
Condition	Widower 7/8/1914	Widow September 1914
Profession	Director of Nelson Technical School
Age	47	47
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	7 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Christ church Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	17/3007
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Weeks, Church of England

9 April 1917

Vincent Henry Bradley
Edith Victoria Barnes

Vincent Henry Bradley
Edith Victoria Barnes
💍 1917/3758

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanical dentist
Dressmaker

23
23

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
5 years

All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson

17/3004

9 April 1917

Rev. J. A. Rogers, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	9 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vincent Henry Bradley	Edith Victoria Barnes
	💍 1917/3758
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanical dentist	Dressmaker
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	17/3004
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Rogers, Church of England

9 April 1917

Francis James Lynch
Katie Rita Mordaunt Condell

Francis James Lynch
Katie Zira Mordaunt Condell
💍 1917/3759

Bachelor
Spinster

Law clerk
School teacher

38
27

Stoke
Stoke

3 days
3 months

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Nelson

17/3005

9 April 1917

Rev. J. Tymons, Roman Catholic

No	23
Date of Notice	9 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis James Lynch	Katie Rita Mordaunt Condell
BDM Match (96%)	Francis James Lynch	Katie Zira Mordaunt Condell
	💍 1917/3759
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law clerk	School teacher
Age	38	27
Dwelling Place	Stoke	Stoke
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Nelson
Folio	17/3005
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Tymons, Roman Catholic

23 April 1917

Claude Percival Theodore Inwood
Eunice Margaret Duncan

Claude Percival Theadore Inwood
Eunice Margaret Duncan
💍 1917/3760

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

23
20

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

17/3006

John William Lodder Duncan, Father

23 April 1917

J. S. Tyson, Registrar

No	24
Date of Notice	23 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Percival Theodore Inwood	Eunice Margaret Duncan
BDM Match (98%)	Claude Percival Theadore Inwood	Eunice Margaret Duncan
	💍 1917/3760
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio	17/3006
Consent	John William Lodder Duncan, Father
Date of Certificate	23 April 1917
Officiating Minister	J. S. Tyson, 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).