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 1925

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar W. W. White

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

3 January 1917

Waller Rattray
Mary Anne Heir

Walter Rattray
Mary Ann Weir
💍 1917/2111

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

21
21

Trevorton
Ashburton

21 years
3 years

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1273

3 January 1917

W. W. White Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Waller Rattray	Mary Anne Heir
BDM Match (89%)	Walter Rattray	Mary Ann Weir
	💍 1917/2111
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Trevorton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1273
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1917
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

9 January 1917

William Henry Grainger
Margaret Haar

William Henry Grainger
Margaret Haar
💍 1917/2112

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic

34
29

Lynnford
Tinwald

6 years
10 years

Presbyterian Church Tinwald

1274

9 January 1917

Rev. W. Marshall

No	2
Date of Notice	9 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Grainger	Margaret Haar
	💍 1917/2112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Lynnford	Tinwald
Length of Residence	6 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Tinwald
Folio	1274
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Marshall

24 January 1917

David Richard Brown
Laura Sophia Edlstone

David Richard Brown
Laura Sophia Elstone
💍 1917/2120

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman
domestic duties

22
20

Ashburton
Ashburton

7 days
7 days

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1275

Charles Henry Bach Edlstone father of Minor

24 January 1917

W. W. White Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	24 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Richard Brown	Laura Sophia Edlstone
BDM Match (98%)	David Richard Brown	Laura Sophia Elstone
	💍 1917/2120
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman	domestic duties
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1275
Consent	Charles Henry Bach Edlstone father of Minor
Date of Certificate	24 January 1917
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

26 January 1917

George Durran Ellen
Kennedy Fraser

George Durran
Ellen Kennedy Fraser
💍 1917/2149

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Telephonist

32
30

Mayfield
Mayfield

8 years
1 month

at the dwelling of John Brown Mayfield

1312

26 January 1917

W. R. Milne

No	4
Date of Notice	26 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Durran Ellen	Kennedy Fraser
BDM Match (69%)	George Durran	Ellen Kennedy Fraser
	💍 1917/2149
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Telephonist
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Mayfield	Mayfield
Length of Residence	8 years	1 month
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of John Brown Mayfield
Folio	1312
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1917
Officiating Minister	W. R. Milne

3 February 1917

Sydney Porter Gourdie
Gladys May Dellow

Sydney Porter Gourdie
Gladys May Dellow
💍 1917/2131

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
domestic duties

28
24

Ashburton
Mayfield

28 years
24 years

Methodist Church Mayfield

1276

3 February 1917

Mr W. E. Sleep

No	5
Date of Notice	3 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Porter Gourdie	Gladys May Dellow
	💍 1917/2131
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	domestic duties
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Mayfield
Length of Residence	28 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Mayfield
Folio	1276
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Mr W. E. Sleep

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).