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 2305

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1919

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

11 January 1919

Cornelius Joseph Ryan
Mary Ann Agatha Doherty

Cornelius Joseph Ryan
Mary Ann Agatha Doherty
💍 1919/867

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
39

Broadfield
Lincoln

Life
Life

Roman Catholic Church Shands Track

718

11 January 1919

Rev D. Leen, Roman Catholic

No	11
Date of Notice	11 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cornelius Joseph Ryan	Mary Ann Agatha Doherty
	💍 1919/867
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	39
Dwelling Place	Broadfield	Lincoln
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Shands Track
Folio	718
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev D. Leen, Roman Catholic

11 January 1919

Joseph Patrick Mullaney
Gladys Jessie Fleay

Joseph Patrick Mullaney
Sedgley Jessie Keay
💍 1919/872

Bachelor
Spinster

Linesman

22
29

Christchurch
St. Albans

15 years
4 years

Roman Catholic Presbytery Barbadoes street, Christchurch

723

Notice given see No. 17

11 January 1919

Rev J. W. Price, Roman Catholic

No	12
Date of Notice	11 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Patrick Mullaney	Gladys Jessie Fleay
BDM Match (76%)	Joseph Patrick Mullaney	Sedgley Jessie Keay
	💍 1919/872
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linesman
Age	22	29
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	St. Albans
Length of Residence	15 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Presbytery Barbadoes street, Christchurch
Folio	723
Consent	Notice given see No. 17
Date of Certificate	11 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. W. Price, Roman Catholic

11 January 1919

Cornelius Frederick Richards
Ethel May Rose

Cornelius Frederick Richards
Ethel May Rose
💍 1919/868

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor's Cutter
Clerk

24
24

Sockburn
Linwood

1 year
5 years

Holy Trinity Church, Avonside

719

11 January 1919

Rev V. Fitzgerald, Anglican

No	13
Date of Notice	11 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cornelius Frederick Richards	Ethel May Rose
	💍 1919/868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor's Cutter	Clerk
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Sockburn	Linwood
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside
Folio	719
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev V. Fitzgerald, Anglican

11 January 1919

Norman Winter Eggleston
Ethel Nellie Frame

Norman Winter Eggleston
Ethel Nellie Frame
💍 1919/869

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Dressmaker

29
28

Christchurch
Sydenham

29 years
7 years

St. Mark's Church Opawa

720

11 January 1919

Rev H. Williams, Anglican

No	14
Date of Notice	11 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Winter Eggleston	Ethel Nellie Frame
	💍 1919/869
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Dressmaker
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Sydenham
Length of Residence	29 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church Opawa
Folio	720
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev H. Williams, Anglican

13 January 1919

David Tavendale
Catherine Henderson

David Tavendale
Catherine Henderson
💍 1919/870

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
29

Christchurch
Christchurch

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Christchurch

721

13 January 1919

Registrar

No	15
Date of Notice	13 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Tavendale	Catherine Henderson
	💍 1919/870
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Christchurch
Folio	721
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).