Intentions to Marry, 1918 Kaikoura to Rakaia

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840479, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1918 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.

1918e contains pages 1647-2188, covering districts from Kaikoura to Rakaia

Page 2017

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1918

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

412

30 July 1918

James Bury Hodgman
Ruby Olive Jackson

James Bury Hodgman
Ruby Olive Jackson
💍 1918/4223

Widower April 30, 1917
Spinster

Labourer

45
23

Christchurch
Christchurch

5 days
2 years

Registrar's Office Christchurch

3414

30 July 1918

Registrar

No	412
Date of Notice	30 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bury Hodgman	Ruby Olive Jackson
	💍 1918/4223
Condition	Widower April 30, 1917	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	45	23
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	5 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	3414
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Registrar

413

31 July 1918

Daniel Prescott George
Marjorie Hilliard Painter

Daniel Prescott George
Marjorie Hilliard Painter
💍 1918/4224

Bachelor
Spinster

Hardware Assistant
Invoice Clerk

23
22

Christchurch
Avonside

23 years
22 years

Holy Trinity Church Avonside

3415

31 July 1918

Rev O. FitzGerald Anglican

No	413
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Prescott George	Marjorie Hilliard Painter
	💍 1918/4224
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hardware Assistant	Invoice Clerk
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Avonside
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Avonside
Folio	3415
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev O. FitzGerald Anglican

414

31 July 1918

Ernest Linton Button
Bertha Freeman

Ernest Linton Button
Bertha Freeman
💍 1918/4225

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

27
27

Christchurch
Christchurch

2 days
Life

Registrar's Office Christchurch

3416

31 July 1918

Registrar

No	414
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Linton Button	Bertha Freeman
	💍 1918/4225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 days	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	3416
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Registrar

415

2 August 1918

William Arthur Uren Johnson
Catherine Cochrane Baillie West

William Arthur Uren Johnson
Catherine Cochrane Baillie Weir
💍 1918/4226

Bachelor
Spinster

Hospital Porter

29
24

Sydenham
Sydenham

29 years
18 months

Residence of Mr W. Johnson 89 Montreal Street Sydenham

3417

2 August 1918

Rev W. Beckett Methodist

No	415
Date of Notice	2 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Uren Johnson	Catherine Cochrane Baillie West
BDM Match (97%)	William Arthur Uren Johnson	Catherine Cochrane Baillie Weir
	💍 1918/4226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hospital Porter
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Sydenham
Length of Residence	29 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr W. Johnson 89 Montreal Street Sydenham
Folio	3417
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Beckett Methodist

416

3 August 1918

Leonard Harry Patton
Louie May Smith

Leonard Harry Polton
Louie May Smith
💍 1918/4227

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist
Milliner

31
32

Woolston
Woolston

3 days
3 days

St Michael's Church Christchurch

3418

3 August 1918

Rev C. E. Perry Anglican

No	416
Date of Notice	3 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Harry Patton	Louie May Smith
BDM Match (95%)	Leonard Harry Polton	Louie May Smith
	💍 1918/4227
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist	Milliner
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Woolston	Woolston
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Michael's Church Christchurch
Folio	3418
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev C. E. Perry Anglican

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).