Intentions to Marry, 1920 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840494, 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.

1920g contains pages 2957-3440, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2993

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar P. E. Bennison

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

15 April 1920

Alfred Broadley
Florence Cowley

Alfred Broadley
Florence Cowley
💍 1920/6349

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

32
22

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

9 years
6 years

Anglican Church Kaiapoi

5952

15 April 1920

Rev J Holland, Anglican, Kaiapoi

No	11
Date of Notice	15 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Broadley	Florence Cowley
	💍 1920/6349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	9 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church Kaiapoi
Folio	5952
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Holland, Anglican, Kaiapoi

15 April 1920

Albert Francis Franklin
Dorothy Julia Mallasch

Albert Francis Franklin
Dorothy Julia Mallasch
💍 1920/6360

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman
Weaver

21
19

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

15 months
19 years

Residence of Rudolph Theodore Mallasch Kaiapoi

5953

Rudolph Theodore Mallasch, Father

15 April 1920

Adjutant Charker, Salvationist

No	12
Date of Notice	15 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Francis Franklin	Dorothy Julia Mallasch
	💍 1920/6360
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman	Weaver
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	15 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rudolph Theodore Mallasch Kaiapoi
Folio	5953
Consent	Rudolph Theodore Mallasch, Father
Date of Certificate	15 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Adjutant Charker, Salvationist

23 April 1920

Charles Henry Ching
Nellie Presnell

Charles Henry Ching
Nellie Presnell
💍 1920/6366

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

33
24

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

33 years
24 years

Baptist Church Kaiapoi

5954

23 April 1920

Rev L A Day, Baptist

No	13
Date of Notice	23 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Ching	Nellie Presnell
	💍 1920/6366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	33 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Kaiapoi
Folio	5954
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L A Day, Baptist

28 April 1920

William Laurence Yaxley
Ethel Winnifred Florence Rule

William Laurence Yaxley
Ethel Winnifred Florence Rule
💍 1920/6367

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

21
20

Woodend
Woodend

10 years
3 months

Residence of Mary Rule (mother) Woodend

5955

Mary Rule, mother of Bride

28 April 1920

Rev C B Jordan, Wesleyan

No	14
Date of Notice	28 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Laurence Yaxley	Ethel Winnifred Florence Rule
	💍 1920/6367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Woodend	Woodend
Length of Residence	10 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mary Rule (mother) Woodend
Folio	5955
Consent	Mary Rule, mother of Bride
Date of Certificate	28 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev C B Jordan, Wesleyan

10 June 1920

Stephen Matthew Clinch
Maria Ann Lamplugh

Stephen Matthew Clinch
Maria Ann Lampleigh
💍 1920/6368

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

23
27

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

4 days
6 years

Church of England Kaiapoi

5956

15 June 1920

Rev J Holland, Anglican, Kaiapoi

No	15
Date of Notice	10 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Matthew Clinch	Maria Ann Lamplugh
BDM Match (95%)	Stephen Matthew Clinch	Maria Ann Lampleigh
	💍 1920/6368
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	4 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Kaiapoi
Folio	5956
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Holland, Anglican, Kaiapoi

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).