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 2649

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar W. W. [illegible]

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

5 January 1920

Leicester Hurrell
Ruby Evelyn Margaret Fontaine

Leicester Hurrell
Ruby Evelyn Margaret Fountaine
💍 1920/5317

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic
Domestic duties

24
23

Trevorton
Netherby

24 years
23 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

2695

5 January 1920

Rev George Miller, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leicester Hurrell	Ruby Evelyn Margaret Fontaine
BDM Match (98%)	Leicester Hurrell	Ruby Evelyn Margaret Fountaine
	💍 1920/5317
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic	Domestic duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Trevorton	Netherby
Length of Residence	24 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	2695
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev George Miller, Presbyterian

5 January 1920

Leslie John Nicholls Fowke
Catherine Elizabeth Schneider

Leslie John Nicholls Fowke
Catherine Elizabeth Schneider
💍 1920/5318

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal clerk
domestic duties

26
24

Ashburton
Tinwald

26 years
24 years

Methodist Church Tinwald

2696

5 January 1920

Rev Samuel Bailey, Methodist

No	2
Date of Notice	5 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie John Nicholls Fowke	Catherine Elizabeth Schneider
	💍 1920/5318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal clerk	domestic duties
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Tinwald
Length of Residence	26 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Tinwald
Folio	2696
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev Samuel Bailey, Methodist

10 January 1920

Charles Henry Sutton
Evelyn Mary Kerr

Charles Henry Sutton
Evelyn Mary Kerr
💍 1920/5319

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
clerk

25
24

Ashburton
Hampstead

25 years
24 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton

2697

10 January 1920

Rev George Miller, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	10 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Sutton	Evelyn Mary Kerr
	💍 1920/5319
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Hampstead
Length of Residence	25 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Ashburton
Folio	2697
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev George Miller, Presbyterian

24 January 1920

Philip John Davis
Florence Emma Hayes

Philip John Davis
Florence Emma Hayes
💍 1920/5320

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
clerk

34
27

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days
1 month

Church of England Hinds

2698

24 January 1920

Rev J. F. Heron, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	24 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip John Davis	Florence Emma Hayes
	💍 1920/5320
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	clerk
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	Church of England Hinds
Folio	2698
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J. F. Heron, Church of England

4 February 1920

Jens Christian Petersen
Charlotte Ann Ellis

Jens Christian Petersen
Charlotte Ann Ellis
💍 1920/5321

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

29
29

Hinds
Hinds

3 days
29 years

at the dwelling of J. T. Ellis Hinds

2699

4 February 1920

Rev Samuel Bailey, Methodist

No	5
Date of Notice	4 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jens Christian Petersen	Charlotte Ann Ellis
	💍 1920/5321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Hinds	Hinds
Length of Residence	3 days	29 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of J. T. Ellis Hinds
Folio	2699
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev Samuel Bailey, Methodist

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).