Intentions to Marry, 1919 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840485, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1919 is bound in seven volumes (a to g) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1919e contains pages 2001-2520, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2217

District of Grey Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar A. H. Harris

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

21 January 1919

Timothy Sinnott
Catherine Ruby Sheahan

Timothy Sinnott
Catherine Ruby Sheahan
💍 1919/1636

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

26
22

Blaketown
Blaketown, Greymouth

10 years
19 years

St Patrick's Church, Greymouth

1414

21 January 1919

P. Aubry, Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	21 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Timothy Sinnott	Catherine Ruby Sheahan
	💍 1919/1636
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Blaketown	Blaketown, Greymouth
Length of Residence	10 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	1414
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1919
Officiating Minister	P. Aubry, Roman Catholic

27 January 1919

Samuel Harris
Maud Catherine Griffiths

Samuel Harris
Maud Catherine Griffiths
💍 1919/1637

Widower
Widow

Butcher
Domestic

40
30

Greymouth
Greymouth

7 years
8 days

The dwellinghouse of Thomas Leach, Herbert Street, Greymouth

1415

27 January 1919

Arthur Podmore, Salvation Army

No	2
Date of Notice	27 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Harris	Maud Catherine Griffiths
	💍 1919/1637
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Butcher	Domestic
Age	40	30
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	7 years	8 days
Marriage Place	The dwellinghouse of Thomas Leach, Herbert Street, Greymouth
Folio	1415
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Arthur Podmore, Salvation Army

28 January 1919

Thomas James Finn
Annie Gallaher Devine

Thomas James Pinn
Annie Gallaher Devine
💍 1919/1638

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

28
20

Runanga
Runanga

10 years
10 years

St Patrick's Church, Greymouth

1416

Joseph Gallaher Devine, Father

28 January 1919

D. J. Campbell, Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	28 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas James Finn	Annie Gallaher Devine
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas James Pinn	Annie Gallaher Devine
	💍 1919/1638
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Runanga	Runanga
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Church, Greymouth
Folio	1416
Consent	Joseph Gallaher Devine, Father
Date of Certificate	28 January 1919
Officiating Minister	D. J. Campbell, Roman Catholic

29 January 1919

William Henry John Arnott
Jean Richmond Aitken

William Henry John Arnott
Jean Richmond Aitken
💍 1919/1639

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Waitress

26
19

Greymouth
Greymouth

26 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church, Greymouth

1417

No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

29 January 1919

J. W. Smyth, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry John Arnott	Jean Richmond Aitken
	💍 1919/1639
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Waitress
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	26 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Greymouth
Folio	1417
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	J. W. Smyth, Presbyterian

4 February 1919

Alexander Cameron Armstrong
Gertrude Mary Cheverton

Alexander Cameron Armstrong
Gertrude Mary Cheverton
💍 1919/1640

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Clerk

25
24

Greymouth
Cobden

25 years
15 years

Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth

1418

4 February 1919

W. J. Bloyce, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	4 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Cameron Armstrong	Gertrude Mary Cheverton
	💍 1919/1640
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Cobden
Length of Residence	25 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Greymouth
Folio	1418
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1919
Officiating Minister	W. J. Bloyce, Church of England

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).