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 2408

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

516

23 July 1919

Henry Curragh
Annie Gibson Gilmour

Henry Curragh
Annie Gibson Gilmour
💍 1919/5038

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

43
34

Templeton
Weedons

Life
28 years

St David's Church Hornby

4276

23 July 1919

Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian

No	516
Date of Notice	23 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Curragh	Annie Gibson Gilmour
	💍 1919/5038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	43	34
Dwelling Place	Templeton	Weedons
Length of Residence	Life	28 years
Marriage Place	St David's Church Hornby
Folio	4276
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian

517

23 July 1919

William John Sutherland
Emily Cooke

William John Sutherland
Emily Cooke
💍 1919/5045

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Servant

35
31

Opawa
Christchurch

10 years
8 years

St Luke's Church Christchurch

4277

23 July 1919

Rev. F. N. Taylor, Anglican

No	517
Date of Notice	23 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Sutherland	Emily Cooke
	💍 1919/5045
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Servant
Age	35	31
Dwelling Place	Opawa	Christchurch
Length of Residence	10 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St Luke's Church Christchurch
Folio	4277
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. N. Taylor, Anglican

518

24 July 1919

Frederick Arthur Leslie Cookson
Ida Apolina Holford

Frederick Arthur Leslie Cookson
Ida Apolima Apolima
💍 1919/5046

Bachelor
Spinster

Sales Manager

30
26

Christchurch
Strowan

15 months
6 years

St Mary's Church Merivale

4278

24 July 1919

Rev. P. B. Haggitt, Anglican

No	518
Date of Notice	24 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Arthur Leslie Cookson	Ida Apolina Holford
BDM Match (82%)	Frederick Arthur Leslie Cookson	Ida Apolima Apolima
	💍 1919/5046
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sales Manager
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Strowan
Length of Residence	15 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Merivale
Folio	4278
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. B. Haggitt, Anglican

519

25 July 1919

David Blair Cockerell
May Craighead

David Blair Cockerell
May Craighead
💍 1919/5047

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

23
24

Christchurch
Templeton

11 months
6 years

St Andrew's Church Christchurch

4279

25 July 1919

Rev. R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	519
Date of Notice	25 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Blair Cockerell	May Craighead
	💍 1919/5047
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Templeton
Length of Residence	11 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church Christchurch
Folio	4279
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian

520

25 July 1919

Duncan Wray Macfarlane
Charlotte Zelie Vale

Duncan Wray MacFarlane
Charlotte Zelie Vale
💍 1919/5048

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
31

Christchurch
Christchurch

8 days
8 days

Residence of Mr J. H. Seager, 21 Worcester St Christchurch

4280

25 July 1919

Rev. R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	520
Date of Notice	25 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Wray Macfarlane	Charlotte Zelie Vale
BDM Match (98%)	Duncan Wray MacFarlane	Charlotte Zelie Vale
	💍 1919/5048
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	8 days	8 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr J. H. Seager, 21 Worcester St Christchurch
Folio	4280
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. M. Ryburn, 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).