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 1809

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1917 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

13 February 1917

Kenneth Stanley Pahl
Ellen Maud Oakley

Kenneth Stanley Pahl
Ellen Maud Oakly
💍 1917/52

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
19

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
2 years

Church of Christ, Waimea Street, Nelson

17/1241

Henrietta Maud Oakley, Mother

13 February 1917

Rev. C. A. Dickson, Church of Christ

No	11
Date of Notice	13 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Stanley Pahl	Ellen Maud Oakley
BDM Match (97%)	Kenneth Stanley Pahl	Ellen Maud Oakly
	💍 1917/52
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Waimea Street, Nelson
Folio	17/1241
Consent	Henrietta Maud Oakley, Mother
Date of Certificate	13 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Dickson, Church of Christ

20 February 1917

Leonard Willis Graham
Bertha Amelia Berquist

Leonard Willis Graham
Bertha Amelia Berquist
💍 1917/2398

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
26

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

All Saints' Church, Nelson

17/1563

20 February 1917

Rev. John A. Rogers, Church of England

No	12
Date of Notice	20 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Willis Graham	Bertha Amelia Berquist
	💍 1917/2398
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Nelson
Folio	17/1563
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. John A. Rogers, Church of England

22 February 1917

Joseph Wilfred Senior
Lindora Rutherford

Joseph Wilfred Senior
Lindora Rutherford
💍 1917/53

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

43
31

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Nelson

17/1242

22 February 1917

S. Tyson, Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	22 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Wilfred Senior	Lindora Rutherford
	💍 1917/53
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	43	31
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Nelson
Folio	17/1242
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1917
Officiating Minister	S. Tyson, Registrar

26 February 1917

Raymond Leslie Stent
Ruby Emila Henman

Raymond Leslie Stent
Ruby Emila Henman
💍 1917/54

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic servant

21
20

Nelson
Nelson

21 years
9 years

Salvation Army Citadel, Waimea Street, Nelson

17/1243

William Henman, Father

26 February 1917

Adjutant F. S. Parker, Salvation Army

No	14
Date of Notice	26 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Leslie Stent	Ruby Emila Henman
	💍 1917/54
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic servant
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	21 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Citadel, Waimea Street, Nelson
Folio	17/1243
Consent	William Henman, Father
Date of Certificate	26 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Adjutant F. S. Parker, Salvation Army

10 March 1917

William Roy Askew
Ethel Maude Jacobsen

William Roy Askew
Ethel Maude Jacobsen
💍 1917/55

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

23
21

Nelson
Nelson

1 day
9 years

Roman Catholic Church, Manuka Street, Nelson

17/1244

10 March 1917

Rev. J. Tymons, Roman Catholic

No	15
Date of Notice	10 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Roy Askew	Ethel Maude Jacobsen
	💍 1917/55
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	1 day	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Manuka Street, Nelson
Folio	17/1244
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Tymons, Roman Catholic

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).