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 2682

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar T. G. Petri

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

4 July 1918

Donald Drain
Margaret Ellen Corbett

Donald Drain
Margaret Ellen Collett
💍 1918/5172

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

31
24

Lochiel, Invercargill
Invercargill

25 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

4778

4 July 1918

Rev. R. M. Ryburn

No	73
Date of Notice	4 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Drain	Margaret Ellen Corbett
BDM Match (95%)	Donald Drain	Margaret Ellen Collett
	💍 1918/5172
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Lochiel, Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	25 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	4778
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. M. Ryburn

8 July 1918

John Browne
Margaret Darley

John Browne
Margaret Darley
💍 1918/5173

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Domestic

28
42

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 days
3 days

Methodist Manse, 218 Dee Street, Invercargill

4779

8 July 1918

Rev. A. Peters

No	74
Date of Notice	8 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Browne	Margaret Darley
	💍 1918/5173
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Domestic
Age	28	42
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, 218 Dee Street, Invercargill
Folio	4779
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Peters

16 July 1918

Myles Cahill
Mary Cahill

Myles Cahill
Mary Cahill
💍 1918/5174

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Housemaid

28
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

4780

16 July 1918

Very Rev. W. Burke

No	75
Date of Notice	16 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Myles Cahill	Mary Cahill
	💍 1918/5174
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housemaid
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	4780
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. W. Burke

22 July 1918

Aubrey Cyril Witting
Mary Milne

Aubrey Cyril Witting
Mary Milne
💍 1918/5175

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

22
30

Invercargill
Invercargill

16 years
22 years

Residence of Rev. R. M. Ryburn, Tay Street, Invercargill

4781

22 July 1918

Rev. R. M. Ryburn

No	76
Date of Notice	22 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Aubrey Cyril Witting	Mary Milne
	💍 1918/5175
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	22	30
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	16 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. R. M. Ryburn, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	4781
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. M. Ryburn

25 July 1918

Thomas Battersby
Eliza Durant

Thomas Battersby
Eliza Durrant
💍 1918/5153

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Laundress

41
35

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 years
35 years

Residence of Rev. H. B. Hughes, 55 McMaster Street, Invercargill

4782

25 July 1918

Rev. H. B. Hughes

No	77
Date of Notice	25 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Battersby	Eliza Durant
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Battersby	Eliza Durrant
	💍 1918/5153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Laundress
Age	41	35
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 years	35 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. H. B. Hughes, 55 McMaster Street, Invercargill
Folio	4782
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Hughes

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).