Intentions to Marry, 1921 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840501, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1921 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.

1921f contains pages 2143-2690, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2301

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Nelson Registrar E. S. Fox

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

1 April 1921

Albert Cecil William Godd
Amelia Beatrice Hadburn

Bachelor
Spinster

Assayer
Domestic duties

28
21

Nelson
Nelson

2 weeks
2 weeks

Christchurch Cathedral

5198

1 April 1921

Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

No	41
Date of Notice	1 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Cecil William Godd	Amelia Beatrice Hadburn
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assayer	Domestic duties
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Christchurch Cathedral
Folio	5198
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

2 April 1921

Henry Kedley Parmenter
Maggie MacRae

Henry Edley Parmenter
Maggie MacNab
💍 1921/6996

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk, Telegraph Department
Domestic duties

29
28

Nelson
Nelson

10 days
15 years

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

5199

2 April 1921

Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	42
Date of Notice	2 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Kedley Parmenter	Maggie MacRae
BDM Match (88%)	Henry Edley Parmenter	Maggie MacNab
	💍 1921/6996
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk, Telegraph Department	Domestic duties
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	10 days	15 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	5199
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

5 April 1921

Malcolm Leigh
Ethel Doris boyne Graves

Malcolm Leigh
Ethel Doris Voyne Graves
💍 1921/6997

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouse Assistant
Domestic duties

19
20

Nelson
Nelson

15 years
2 years

Dwelling of Mrs. Katherine Eliza Miles, Nile Street West, Nelson

5200

Katherine Eliza Miles, Mother

5 April 1921

Rev. John Laird, Baptist

No	43
Date of Notice	5 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Malcolm Leigh	Ethel Doris boyne Graves
BDM Match (98%)	Malcolm Leigh	Ethel Doris Voyne Graves
	💍 1921/6997
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouse Assistant	Domestic duties
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	15 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mrs. Katherine Eliza Miles, Nile Street West, Nelson
Folio	5200
Consent	Katherine Eliza Miles, Mother
Date of Certificate	5 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Laird, Baptist

8 April 1921

Reginald William Reid
Kathleen Doris Lewis

Reginald William Reid
Kathleen Doris Lewis
💍 1921/7005

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Engineer
Nurse

24
21

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

Christchurch Cathedral

5201

8 April 1921

Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

No	44
Date of Notice	8 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald William Reid	Kathleen Doris Lewis
	💍 1921/7005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Engineer	Nurse
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Christchurch Cathedral
Folio	5201
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

14 April 1921

Herman Julius Kublow
Florence May Nightingale

Herman Julius Lublow
Florence May Nightingale Riley
💍 1921/7016

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

24
24

Nelson
Nelson

6 weeks
6 weeks

Christchurch Cathedral

5202

14 April 1921

Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

No	45
Date of Notice	14 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herman Julius Kublow	Florence May Nightingale
BDM Match (88%)	Herman Julius Lublow	Florence May Nightingale Riley
	💍 1921/7016
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Christchurch Cathedral
Folio	5202
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Hicks, Church of England

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).