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 2283

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar W. W. White

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 January 1919

Benjamin Kelly
Ivy Mary Moore

Benjamin Kelly
Ivy Mary Moore
💍 1919/1685

Bachelor
Spinster

Returned Soldier
Domestic Duties

26
22

Ashburton
Ashburton

6 years
22 years

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1440

9 January 1919

W. W. White Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	9 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Kelly	Ivy Mary Moore
	💍 1919/1685
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Returned Soldier	Domestic Duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	6 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1440
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1919
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

10 January 1919

William Green
Ellen Tibble

William Green
Ellen Fibble
💍 1919/1686

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Duties

36
24

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar Ashburton

1441

10 January 1919

W. W. White Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	10 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Green	Ellen Tibble
BDM Match (96%)	William Green	Ellen Fibble
	💍 1919/1686
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Duties
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar Ashburton
Folio	1441
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1919
Officiating Minister	W. W. White Registrar

5 February 1919

Kenneth William Horton Revell
Dora Maher

Kenneth William Horton Revell
Dora Maher
💍 1919/948

Bachelor
Spinster

Telephonist
Domestic Duties

28
29

Christchurch
Ashburton

9 months
13 months

St. Saviours Sydenham

776

5 February 1919

Rev. Percy Revell Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	5 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth William Horton Revell	Dora Maher
	💍 1919/948
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telephonist	Domestic Duties
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Ashburton
Length of Residence	9 months	13 months
Marriage Place	St. Saviours Sydenham
Folio	776
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Percy Revell Church of England

5 March 1919

Wilfrid Thomas Lill
Edith Frances Caroline Watson

Wilfred Thomas Lill
Edith Frances Caroline Watson
💍 1919/1687

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

27
25

Westerfield
Willowby

27 years
22 years

Methodist Church Willowby

1442

5 March 1919

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow Methodist

No	4
Date of Notice	5 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfrid Thomas Lill	Edith Frances Caroline Watson
BDM Match (97%)	Wilfred Thomas Lill	Edith Frances Caroline Watson
	💍 1919/1687
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Westerfield	Willowby
Length of Residence	27 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Willowby
Folio	1442
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow Methodist

6 March 1919

Matthew Laurie Craighead
Priscilla Amy Morriss

Matthew Laurie Crayhead
Priscilla Amy Morriss
💍 1919/1688

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber
Domestic Duties

22
20

Ashburton
Hampstead

22 years
20 years

The Manse Ashburton

1443

Priscilla Morriss Mother of Minor

6 March 1919

Rev. W. Marshall Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	6 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Laurie Craighead	Priscilla Amy Morriss
BDM Match (96%)	Matthew Laurie Crayhead	Priscilla Amy Morriss
	💍 1919/1688
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber	Domestic Duties
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Hampstead
Length of Residence	22 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The Manse Ashburton
Folio	1443
Consent	Priscilla Morriss Mother of Minor
Date of Certificate	6 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Marshall 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).