Intentions to Marry, 1918 Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840480, 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.

1918f contains pages 2189-2777, covering districts from Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Page 2525

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar J. S. Farrar

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

3495

8 January 1918

Ernest William Grenfell
Isabella Adamson Kilgour

Ernest William Grenfell
Isabella Adamson Kilgour
💍 1918/1966

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect
Domestic duties

31
29

Oamaru
Oamaru

7 years
29 years

Methodist Church, Eden Street, Oamaru

1430

8 January 1918

Rev. John A. Lochore, Methodist

No	3495
Date of Notice	8 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Grenfell	Isabella Adamson Kilgour
	💍 1918/1966
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect	Domestic duties
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	7 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Eden Street, Oamaru
Folio	1430
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. John A. Lochore, Methodist

3496

14 January 1918

Sidney Robert Thomson
Ethel Webb

Sidney Robert Thomson
Ethel Webb
💍 1918/1967

Bachelor
Spinster

Auctioneer
Tailoress

27
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

18 months
26 years

St Paul's Church, Oamaru

1431

14 January 1918

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	3496
Date of Notice	14 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Robert Thomson	Ethel Webb
	💍 1918/1967
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Auctioneer	Tailoress
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	18 months	26 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church, Oamaru
Folio	1431
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

3497

4 February 1918

Herbert Stuart Paton
Elizabeth Mary Farrant

Herbert Stuart Paton
Elizabeth Mary Farrant
💍 1918/1968

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Typiste

25
22

Oamaru
Oamaru

9 years
9 years

Residence of Elizabeth Mary Farrant, Ouse Street, Oamaru

1432

4 February 1918

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	3497
Date of Notice	4 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Stuart Paton	Elizabeth Mary Farrant
	💍 1918/1968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Typiste
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Elizabeth Mary Farrant, Ouse Street, Oamaru
Folio	1432
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

3498

25 February 1918

Arthur Gordon Laird
Olive Thomasina Goodall

Arthur Gordon Laird
Olive Thomasina Goodall
💍 1918/1969

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

20
20

Oamaru
South Oamaru

3 months
20 years

Residence of Samuel Henry Goodall, South Oamaru

1433

Jessie Laird, mother; Samuel Henry Goodall, Father

25 February 1918

Rev. John A. Lochore, Methodist

No	3498
Date of Notice	25 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Gordon Laird	Olive Thomasina Goodall
	💍 1918/1969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	South Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Samuel Henry Goodall, South Oamaru
Folio	1433
Consent	Jessie Laird, mother; Samuel Henry Goodall, Father
Date of Certificate	25 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. John A. Lochore, Methodist

3499

22 February 1918

James Alexander Grubb
Gwyneth Roberta Espie

James Alexander Grubb
Gwynneth Roberta Espie
💍 1918/1970

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

26
20

Oamaru
Oamaru

20 months
1 year

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru

1434

Under Section 27

9 March 1918

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	3499
Date of Notice	22 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alexander Grubb	Gwyneth Roberta Espie
BDM Match (98%)	James Alexander Grubb	Gwynneth Roberta Espie
	💍 1918/1970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	20 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru
Folio	1434
Consent	Under Section 27
Date of Certificate	9 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

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).