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 2313

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

28 January 1919

Donald McGallan
Ruth Jean Preston Stewart

Donald McGallan
Ruth Jean Preston Stewart
💍 1919/926

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

20
19

Christchurch
Christchurch

20 years
1.5 years

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

754

Thomas Gibson McGallan, Father; Jane Stewart, Mother

28 January 1919

Registrar

No	51
Date of Notice	28 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald McGallan	Ruth Jean Preston Stewart
	💍 1919/926
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	20 years	1.5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	754
Consent	Thomas Gibson McGallan, Father; Jane Stewart, Mother
Date of Certificate	28 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

29 January 1919

John Birt
Hazel Wallace

John Birt
Hazel Wallace
💍 1919/927

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy Farmer

29
22

Christchurch
Christchurch

4 days
4 days

Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch

755

29 January 1919

Rev. J. Long, R.C.

No	52
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Birt	Hazel Wallace
	💍 1919/927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy Farmer
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch
Folio	755
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Long, R.C.

29 January 1919

Horatio James Thomas Lawson
Alice Christina Patterson

Horatio James Thomas Lawson
Alice Christina Patterson
💍 1919/928

Bachelor
Spinster

Returned Soldier

22
22

Christchurch
Christchurch

7 months
18 months

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

756

29 January 1919

Registrar

No	53
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horatio James Thomas Lawson	Alice Christina Patterson
	💍 1919/928
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Returned Soldier
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	7 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	756
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

29 January 1919

Wilfred Percy Mummery
Jean Catherine Young commonly known as Mann

Wilfred Percy Mummery
Jean Catherine Mann
💍 1919/929

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

26
24

Linwood
Christchurch

26 years
20 years

Residence of Mrs. J. Mann, 270 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch

757

29 January 1919

Rev. C. E. Ward, Methodist

No	54
Date of Notice	29 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Percy Mummery	Jean Catherine Young commonly known as Mann
BDM Match (72%)	Wilfred Percy Mummery	Jean Catherine Mann
	💍 1919/929
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Linwood	Christchurch
Length of Residence	26 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. J. Mann, 270 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch
Folio	757
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. E. Ward, Methodist

30 January 1919

Herbert Horace Rankwell
Clarice Muriel Price

Herbert Horace Nankivell
Clarice Muriel Priest
💍 1919/906

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Tailoress

21
20

Dallington
Linwood

14 years
16 years

Congregational Church, Linwood

758

Frank Hodge Price, Father

30 January 1919

Rev. H. A. Job, Congregationalist

No	55
Date of Notice	30 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Horace Rankwell	Clarice Muriel Price
BDM Match (87%)	Herbert Horace Nankivell	Clarice Muriel Priest
	💍 1919/906
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Tailoress
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Dallington	Linwood
Length of Residence	14 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Linwood
Folio	758
Consent	Frank Hodge Price, Father
Date of Certificate	30 January 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. A. Job, Congregationalist

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).