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 2686

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar J. G. Petrie

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

9 September 1918

Thomas Bruce Thomson
Elizabeth Reid

Thomas Bruce Thomson
Elizabeth Reid
💍 1918/5167

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic

26
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

18 years
2 years

Residence of Rev. A. M. Ryburn, Invercargill

4796

9 September 1918

Rev. A. M. Ryburn

No	93
Date of Notice	9 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Bruce Thomson	Elizabeth Reid
	💍 1918/5167
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	18 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. A. M. Ryburn, Invercargill
Folio	4796
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Ryburn

9 September 1918

Sidney Black Crawford
Jessie Alice Brodie

Sidney Black Crawford
Jessie Alice Brodie
💍 1918/5168

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinery Salesman
Social worker

36
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 year
23 years

Presbyterian Church, First St., Invercargill

4797

9 September 1918

Rev. A. M. Ryburn

No	94
Date of Notice	9 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Black Crawford	Jessie Alice Brodie
	💍 1918/5168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinery Salesman	Social worker
Age	36	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, First St., Invercargill
Folio	4797
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Ryburn

11 September 1918

Ernest Coventry
Leonie Gertruide de Roots Simon

Ernest Coventry
Leonie Gertrude de Zoete Simon
💍 1918/5200

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller
School-teacher

37
33

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 weeks

Residence of J. W. Simon, Myron Road, Invercargill

4798

11 September 1918

Rev. H. W. Burnage

No	95
Date of Notice	11 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Coventry	Leonie Gertruide de Roots Simon
BDM Match (94%)	Ernest Coventry	Leonie Gertrude de Zoete Simon
	💍 1918/5200
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller	School-teacher
Age	37	33
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of J. W. Simon, Myron Road, Invercargill
Folio	4798
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burnage

14 September 1918

Laurence Peter Devlin
Maria Beatrice Kay

Lawrence Peter Devlin
Maria Beatrice Kaye
💍 1918/5201

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent
Home duties

24
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
2 months

Roman Catholic Church, Tyne St., Invercargill

4799

14 September 1918

Rev. W. Burke

No	96
Date of Notice	14 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Peter Devlin	Maria Beatrice Kay
BDM Match (95%)	Lawrence Peter Devlin	Maria Beatrice Kaye
	💍 1918/5201
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent	Home duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Tyne St., Invercargill
Folio	4799
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Burke

17 September 1918

Harry Meredith Lean
Leah Fotheringham Hawke

Harry Treseder
Leah Fotheringham Hawke
💍 1918/5202

Bachelor
Spinster

Stock Agent
Domestic duties

24
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
26 years

Residence of A. T. Hawke, Duke St., Invercargill

4800

17 September 1918

Rev. A. Peters

No	97
Date of Notice	17 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Meredith Lean	Leah Fotheringham Hawke
BDM Match (74%)	Harry Treseder	Leah Fotheringham Hawke
	💍 1918/5202
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stock Agent	Domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of A. T. Hawke, Duke St., Invercargill
Folio	4800
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Peters

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).