Intentions to Marry, 1920 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840493, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1920f contains pages 2345-2956, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2425

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar W. T. Coads

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

12 April 1920

Leslie Arthur Howlison
Ellen Johanna Patterson
formerly Sweeney

Leslie Arthur Howlison
Ellen Johanna Patterson
💍 1920/6224

Bachelor
Widow 11-1-1919

Labourer
Domestic Duties

36
39

Charleston
Charleston

10 months
39 years

St. Canice's Roman Catholic Church, Westport

20/5782

12 April 1920

Rev. Eugene Carmine, Roman Catholic

No	12
Date of Notice	12 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Arthur Howlison	Ellen Johanna Patterson formerly Sweeney
	💍 1920/6224
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 11-1-1919
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	39
Dwelling Place	Charleston	Charleston
Length of Residence	10 months	39 years
Marriage Place	St. Canice's Roman Catholic Church, Westport
Folio	20/5782
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Eugene Carmine, Roman Catholic

26 April 1920

Peter John Thomas Roselli
Margaret Barker Blaikie Stowell

Peter John Thomas Roselli
Margaret Barker Blaikie Stowell
💍 1920/6225

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home Duties

25
27

Westport
Westport

Life
19 years

St John's Church, Westport

20/5783

26 April 1920

Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

No	13
Date of Notice	26 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter John Thomas Roselli	Margaret Barker Blaikie Stowell
	💍 1920/6225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home Duties
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	Life	19 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Westport
Folio	20/5783
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

28 April 1920

Reginald Claude Hames Hickford
Mona Dorothy Stephen

Reginald Claud Hames Hickford
Mona Dorothy Stephen
💍 1920/6226

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

22
21

Westport
Westport

5 years

St John's Church of England, Westport

20/5784

28 April 1920

Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

No	14
Date of Notice	28 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Claude Hames Hickford	Mona Dorothy Stephen
BDM Match (98%)	Reginald Claud Hames Hickford	Mona Dorothy Stephen
	💍 1920/6226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	5 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church of England, Westport
Folio	20/5784
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Coursey, Church of England

29 April 1920

John McGreevy
Williamina Mouat

John McGreevy
Williamina Mouat
💍 1920/2

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter
Domestic Duties

23
25

Westport
Westport

23 years
22 years

Residence of Mrs. G. Mouat, Romilly St., Westport

20/5785

29 April 1920

Rev. Father Cullen, Roman Catholic

No	15
Date of Notice	29 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McGreevy	Williamina Mouat
	💍 1920/2
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Domestic Duties
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. G. Mouat, Romilly St., Westport
Folio	20/5785
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Cullen, Roman Catholic

5 May 1920

Orlando Lovell Nahr
May Mackay

Orlando Lovell Nahr
May MacKay
💍 1920/6204

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer
Teacher

31
30

Westport
Westport

31 years
30 years

Presbyterian Church, Westport

20/5786

5 May 1920

Rev. A. Miller, Presbyterian Church

No	16
Date of Notice	5 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Orlando Lovell Nahr	May Mackay
BDM Match (95%)	Orlando Lovell Nahr	May MacKay
	💍 1920/6204
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer	Teacher
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	31 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Westport
Folio	20/5786
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Miller, Presbyterian Church

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).