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 2445

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Ashburton Registrar W. O. Rorohallo

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 February 1921

George Nelson
Violet Faith Hunt

George Nelson
Violet Faith Hunt
💍 1921/1223

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

41
39

Greenstreet
Greenstreet

8 years
2 years

At the Dwelling of George Nelson, Greenstreet

2558

21 February 1921

Rev. William Scorgie, Presbyterian

No	11
Date of Notice	21 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Nelson	Violet Faith Hunt
	💍 1921/1223
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	41	39
Dwelling Place	Greenstreet	Greenstreet
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	At the Dwelling of George Nelson, Greenstreet
Folio	2558
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Scorgie, Presbyterian

22 February 1921

Francis Henry Steel
Florence Emma Dixon

Francis Henry Steel
Florence Emma Dixon
💍 1921/1224

Widower
Spinster

Insurance Agent
domestic duties

59
47

Ashburton
Ashburton

30 years
2 years

Meth. Church, Baring Square

2559

23 February 1921

Rev. Alfred Peters, Methodist

No	12
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Steel	Florence Emma Dixon
	💍 1921/1224
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent	domestic duties
Age	59	47
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	30 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Meth. Church, Baring Square
Folio	2559
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alfred Peters, Methodist

1 March 1921

William Brown Withers Bell
Emily Jane Oakley

William Brown Witherson Bell
Emily Irene Oakley
💍 1921/1225

Bachelor
Spinster

Newspaper Proprietor
domestic duties

59
33

Ashburton
Ashburton

50 years
33 years

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton

2560

1 March 1921

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	13
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brown Withers Bell	Emily Jane Oakley
BDM Match (88%)	William Brown Witherson Bell	Emily Irene Oakley
	💍 1921/1225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Newspaper Proprietor	domestic duties
Age	59	33
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	50 years	33 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton
Folio	2560
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

2 March 1921

Ernest Evelyn Ballard
Mary Allen

Ernest Evelyn Dallard
Mary Allen
💍 1921/1202

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
domestic duties

32
30

Riccarton
Ashburton

3 months

St. Stephens Church

2562

2 March 1921

Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

No	14
Date of Notice	2 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Evelyn Ballard	Mary Allen
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Evelyn Dallard	Mary Allen
	💍 1921/1202
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	domestic duties
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Riccarton	Ashburton
Length of Residence		3 months
Marriage Place	St. Stephens Church
Folio	2562
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

2 March 1921

Nelson Giles
Gladys Dorothy Dickford

Nelson Giles
Gladys Dorothy Pickford
💍 1921/1203

Bachelor
Spinster

dairy farmer
domestic duties

24
26

Seadown
Ashburton

2 March 1921

No	15
Date of Notice	2 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nelson Giles	Gladys Dorothy Dickford
BDM Match (98%)	Nelson Giles	Gladys Dorothy Pickford
	💍 1921/1203
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	dairy farmer	domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Seadown	Ashburton
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1921
Officiating Minister

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).