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 2164

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar S. Tyson

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

19 November 1919

Charles Arthur Chapman
Emily Irene Constable

Charles Arthur Chapman
Emily Irene Constable
💍 1919/4657

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach-smith
Domestic Duties

25
27

Nelson
Nelson

25 years
27 years

Baptist Church, Nelson

19/9042

19 November 1919

Rev. John Laird, Baptist

No	89
Date of Notice	19 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Arthur Chapman	Emily Irene Constable
	💍 1919/4657
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach-smith	Domestic Duties
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	25 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Nelson
Folio	19/9042
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Laird, Baptist

22 November 1919

Alfred Benny Kidson
Elsie Violet Cass

Alfred Benny Kidson
Elsie Violet Cass
💍 1919/4658

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Milliner

26
23

Nelson
Nelson

24 years
23 years

St. John's Methodist Church, Nelson

19/9043

22 November 1919

Rev. E. D. Patchett, Methodist

No	90
Date of Notice	22 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Benny Kidson	Elsie Violet Cass
	💍 1919/4658
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Milliner
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	24 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Methodist Church, Nelson
Folio	19/9043
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. D. Patchett, Methodist

25 November 1919

James Marshall
Nellie Morrison

James Marshall
Nellie Morrison
💍 1919/4659

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Chocolate Packer

21
22

Nelson
Nelson

5 months
21 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

19/9044

25 November 1919

F. W. Ashby, Deputy Registrar of Marriages

No	91
Date of Notice	25 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Marshall	Nellie Morrison
	💍 1919/4659
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Chocolate Packer
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	5 months	21 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio	19/9044
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 November 1919
Officiating Minister	F. W. Ashby, Deputy Registrar of Marriages

26 November 1919

Alexander Jarvie Gillies
Grace Mary Bunker

Alexander Jarvie Gillies
Grace Mary Bunker
💍 1919/4661

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter
Domestic Duties

23
24

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
23 years

All Saints' Church, Nelson

19/9045

26 November 1919

Rev. W. W. Bedwell, Church of England

No	92
Date of Notice	26 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Jarvie Gillies	Grace Mary Bunker
	💍 1919/4661
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter	Domestic Duties
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Nelson
Folio	19/9045
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Bedwell, Church of England

26 November 1919

William Roy Darcy Strange
Edith Florence Danes

William Roy Darcy Strange
Edith Florence Danes
💍 1919/4662

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

28
19

Nelson
Nelson

25 years
5 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

19/9046

Edward Burns, Guardian

26 November 1919

F. W. Ashby, Deputy Registrar of Marriages

No	93
Date of Notice	26 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Roy Darcy Strange	Edith Florence Danes
	💍 1919/4662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	25 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio	19/9046
Consent	Edward Burns, Guardian
Date of Certificate	26 November 1919
Officiating Minister	F. W. Ashby, Deputy Registrar of Marriages

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).