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 2414

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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

546

4 August 1919

Humphrey Holderness
Lucy Melville Brodrick

Humphrey Holderness
Lucy Metelille Brodrick
💍 1919/5457

Bachelor
Spinster

Shipping Clerk

36
30

Christchurch
Wellington

3 months
7 years

St Pauls Church Wellington

4765

4 August 1919

Rev. A.M. Johnson, Anglican

No	546
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Humphrey Holderness	Lucy Melville Brodrick
BDM Match (94%)	Humphrey Holderness	Lucy Metelille Brodrick
	💍 1919/5457
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shipping Clerk
Age	36	30
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	7 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Church Wellington
Folio	4765
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.M. Johnson, Anglican

547

4 August 1919

Louis De La Mare
Nellie Chapman Bennison

Louis De La Mare
Nellie Chapman Bennison
💍 1919/6410

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic
Tailoress

27
24

Christchurch
Feilding

6 years
2 years

St Johns Church Feilding

5864

4 August 1919

Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican (Feilding)

No	547
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis De La Mare	Nellie Chapman Bennison
	💍 1919/6410
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic	Tailoress
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Feilding
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Johns Church Feilding
Folio	5864
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican (Feilding)

548

5 August 1919

Selby Leslie Webb
Gwen Lilias Jones

Selby Leslie Webb
Gwen Lilias Jones
💍 1919/5072

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

31
33

Christchurch
Christchurch

2 months
4 years

St Mark's Church Opawa

4304

5 August 1919

Rev. H. Williams, Anglican

No	548
Date of Notice	5 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Selby Leslie Webb	Gwen Lilias Jones
	💍 1919/5072
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	31	33
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 months	4 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Opawa
Folio	4304
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Williams, Anglican

549

5 August 1919

Cuthbert Bracegirdle
Jessie Cribb Wilkinson

Cuthbert Bracegirdle
Jessie Cribb Wilkinson
💍 1919/5073

Bachelor
Spinster

Salvation Army Officer

27
27

Christchurch
Christchurch

4 days
3 weeks

Salvation Army Citadel Victoria Street Christchurch

4305

5 August 1919

Brigadier A. B. Carmichael, Salvation Army

No	549
Date of Notice	5 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cuthbert Bracegirdle	Jessie Cribb Wilkinson
	💍 1919/5073
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salvation Army Officer
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	4 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Citadel Victoria Street Christchurch
Folio	4305
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Brigadier A. B. Carmichael, Salvation Army

550

5 August 1919

George Henry Weir
Mary Frances Harrison

George Henry Weir
Mary Frances Harrison
💍 1919/6767

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

42
31

Christchurch
Dorie

10 years
31 years

St Patricks Anglican Church Dorie

6250

5 August 1919

Rev. E. N. Blakiston, Anglican

No	550
Date of Notice	5 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Weir	Mary Frances Harrison
	💍 1919/6767
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	42	31
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Dorie
Length of Residence	10 years	31 years
Marriage Place	St Patricks Anglican Church Dorie
Folio	6250
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. N. Blakiston, Anglican

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).