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 2525

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar S. L. Lyon

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

4 October 1920

Harold Cyril Rowe
Mary Emma Robertson

Harold Cyril Rowe
Mary Emma Robertson
💍 1920/9454

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk, Post and Telegraph Dept.
Domestic duties

28
25

Nelson
Nelson

26 years
25 years

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

20/11625

4 October 1920

Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	88
Date of Notice	4 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Cyril Rowe	Mary Emma Robertson
	💍 1920/9454
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk, Post and Telegraph Dept.	Domestic duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	26 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	20/11625
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

15 October 1920

Walter Whyte Woodrow
Ella May Batchelor

Walter Whyte Woodrow
Ella May Batchelor
💍 1920/9455

Bachelor
Spinster

Loco. Engineer
Domestic duties

28
31

Nelson
Nelson

10 months
31 years

Christ church Cathedral, Nelson

20/11626

15 October 1920

Ven. J. E. Weeks, Church of England

No	89
Date of Notice	15 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Whyte Woodrow	Ella May Batchelor
	💍 1920/9455
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Loco. Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	10 months	31 years
Marriage Place	Christ church Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	20/11626
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Ven. J. E. Weeks, Church of England

21 October 1920

Cyril Waldemar Griggs
Jean McLeod

Cyril Waldemar Griggs
Jean McLeod
💍 1920/9457

Bachelor
Spinster

Apple packer and Produce Shoreman
Domestic duties

28
25

Nelson
Nelson

4 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

20/11627

21 October 1920

Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	90
Date of Notice	21 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Waldemar Griggs	Jean McLeod
	💍 1920/9457
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Apple packer and Produce Shoreman	Domestic duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	4 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	20/11627
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

28 October 1920

Archibald Marvin Bruce McKenzie
Ivy Florence Johnson

Archibald Marvin Bruce McKenzie
Ivy Florence Johnson
💍 1920/9458

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
Dressmaker

23
21

Nelson
Nelson

23 years
8 years

All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson

20/11628

28 October 1920

Rev. H. Pring-Rowe, Church of England

No	91
Date of Notice	28 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Marvin Bruce McKenzie	Ivy Florence Johnson
	💍 1920/9458
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Dressmaker
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	23 years	8 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	20/11628
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Pring-Rowe, Church of England

29 October 1920

Daniel Anderson Wright
Agnes Mitchell Watt

Daniel Anderson Wright
Agnes Mitchell Watt
💍 1920/9459

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Typist

30
20

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
1 day

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

20/11629

12 November 1920

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	92
Date of Notice	29 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Anderson Wright	Agnes Mitchell Watt
	💍 1920/9459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Typist
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	20/11629
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, 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 1925. 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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).