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 2515

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1920 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

21 April 1920

Alexander Brown Hoy
Mabel Aileene Miller

Alexander Brown Hoy
Mabel Aileene Miller
💍 1920/6240

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant
Domestic duties

25
20

Nelson
Nelson

4 years
20 years

Dwelling of (Mrs) Annie Miller, Bridge Street Nelson

5821

Annie Miller, Mother

21 April 1920

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	43
Date of Notice	21 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Brown Hoy	Mabel Aileene Miller
	💍 1920/6240
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant	Domestic duties
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of (Mrs) Annie Miller, Bridge Street Nelson
Folio	5821
Consent	Annie Miller, Mother
Date of Certificate	21 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

23 April 1920

Harold Charles Befarfield
Hilda Henrietta Ricketts

Harold Charles Bebarfald
Hilda Henrietta Ricketts
💍 1920/6296

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Domestic duties

30
28

Nelson
Wakefield

9 months
12 years

Church of Christ, Spring-Grove

5856

23 April 1920

John Watt, Church of Christ

No	44
Date of Notice	23 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Charles Befarfield	Hilda Henrietta Ricketts
BDM Match (94%)	Harold Charles Bebarfald	Hilda Henrietta Ricketts
	💍 1920/6296
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Domestic duties
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Wakefield
Length of Residence	9 months	12 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Spring-Grove
Folio	5856
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1920
Officiating Minister	John Watt, Church of Christ

26 April 1920

William James Sim
Elsie Rose Kemp

William James Cain
Elsie Rose Kemp
💍 1920/6241

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

30
21

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
5 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

5822

26 April 1920

S. Tyson, Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

No	45
Date of Notice	26 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Sim	Elsie Rose Kemp
BDM Match (92%)	William James Cain	Elsie Rose Kemp
	💍 1920/6241
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio	5822
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1920
Officiating Minister	S. Tyson, Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

3 May 1920

Leonard Stanley Allan
Stella Shrimpton

Leonard Stanley Allan
Stella Shrimpton
💍 1920/6242

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk
Domestic duties

29
22

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 weeks

Cathedral, Nelson

5823

3 May 1920

Rev. G. C. Hicks, Church of England

No	46
Date of Notice	3 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Stanley Allan	Stella Shrimpton
	💍 1920/6242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	5823
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. C. Hicks, Church of England

12 May 1920

Patrick Joseph Galvin
Alice Shrout

Patrick Joseph Galvin
Alice Short
💍 1920/6243

Bachelor
Widow, 20th October 1918

Motor-Engineer
Domestic duties

32
27

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
6 months

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manuka Street, Nelson

5824

12 May 1920

Rev. P. Fay, Roman Catholic

No	47
Date of Notice	12 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Joseph Galvin	Alice Shrout
BDM Match (92%)	Patrick Joseph Galvin	Alice Short
	💍 1920/6243
Condition	Bachelor	Widow, 20th October 1918
Profession	Motor-Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manuka Street, Nelson
Folio	5824
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Fay, Roman Catholic

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).