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 2449

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Ashburton

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

2 April 1921

Gordon William Stoddart
Ethel May Bowsell

Gordon William Edwin Stoddart
Ethel May McDowell
💍 1921/7150

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

28
30

Rakaia
Hinds

7 years
26 years

St Stephens Presbyterian Church

5280

3 April 1921

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	2 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon William Stoddart	Ethel May Bowsell
BDM Match (79%)	Gordon William Edwin Stoddart	Ethel May McDowell
	💍 1921/7150
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Rakaia	Hinds
Length of Residence	7 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Presbyterian Church
Folio	5280
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

4 April 1921

George Leslie Houlton
Laura May Soal

George Leslie Houlton
Laura May Soal
💍 1921/7151

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
domestic duties

34
36

Woolston
Ashburton

14 days

St Stephens Church of England

5281

4 April 1921

Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

No	27
Date of Notice	4 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Leslie Houlton	Laura May Soal
	💍 1921/7151
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	domestic duties
Age	34	36
Dwelling Place	Woolston	Ashburton
Length of Residence	14 days
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church of England
Folio	5281
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

8 April 1921

Francis Peter Taylor
Annie Frendergast

Francis Peter Taylor
Annie Prendergast
💍 1921/7152

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

28
23

Tinwald
Rakaia

53 years

Roman Catholic Church

5282

8 April 1921

Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	28
Date of Notice	8 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Peter Taylor	Annie Frendergast
BDM Match (97%)	Francis Peter Taylor	Annie Prendergast
	💍 1921/7152
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Tinwald	Rakaia
Length of Residence	53 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	5282
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

11 April 1921

Raymond John Haywood Briggs
Joy Jane Hadley

Raymond John Henry Briggs
Ivy Jane Hadley
💍 1921/7153

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
domestic duties

30
23

Rakaia
Ashburton

3 years

St Stephens Church

5283

11 April 1921

Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

No	29
Date of Notice	11 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond John Haywood Briggs	Joy Jane Hadley
BDM Match (82%)	Raymond John Henry Briggs	Ivy Jane Hadley
	💍 1921/7153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	domestic duties
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Rakaia	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 years
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church
Folio	5283
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Church of England

11 April 1921

Percy Clark
Jessie Fraser Browne Campbell

Percy Clark
Jessie Fraser Crowe Campbell
💍 1921/7154

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
21

Fairwald
Fairwald

32 years 3 months

At the dwelling of John Clark, Fairwald

5284

11 April 1921

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	30
Date of Notice	11 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Clark	Jessie Fraser Browne Campbell
BDM Match (97%)	Percy Clark	Jessie Fraser Crowe Campbell
	💍 1921/7154
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Fairwald	Fairwald
Length of Residence	32 years 3 months
Marriage Place	At the dwelling of John Clark, Fairwald
Folio	5284
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, 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 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).