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 2463

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Christchurch

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 January 1921

Henry David Poole
Mary Agnes Styles

Henry David Poole
Mary Agnes Bower
💍 1921/2324

Bachelor
Spinster

Nurseryman

Lower Hutt
Christchurch

6 years
3 days

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

171

4 January 1921

Rev. R. B. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	1 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry David Poole	Mary Agnes Styles
BDM Match (85%)	Henry David Poole	Mary Agnes Bower
	💍 1921/2324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Nurseryman
Age	30
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
Folio	171
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. B. Ryburn, Presbyterian

4 January 1921

Edwin Charles Rottkowski
Margaret E. LaHerty

Edwin Charles Kotlowski
Margaret Flaherty
💍 1921/2325

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

23
28

Christchurch
Christchurch

3 days

Roman Catholic Cathedral

172

4 January 1921

Rev. J. B. Seward, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Charles Rottkowski	Margaret E. LaHerty
BDM Match (81%)	Edwin Charles Kotlowski	Margaret Flaherty
	💍 1921/2325
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral
Folio	172
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Seward, Roman Catholic

4 January 1921

Henry Driver Cooksley
Helen Frances Tait

Henry Driver Cooksley
Helen Frances Tait
💍 1921/2326

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

Lyderale
Christchurch

7 months

St. Andrew's Church

173

4 January 1921

Rev. R. B. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Driver Cooksley	Helen Frances Tait
	💍 1921/2326
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31
Dwelling Place	Lyderale	Christchurch
Length of Residence	7 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church
Folio	173
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. B. Ryburn, Presbyterian

4 January 1921

David Alexander Stevenson
Agnes McWhirter Campbell

David Alexander Stevenson Munro
Agnes Maitland Campbell
💍 1921/2327

Widower
Spinster (Divorced Decree Absolute 27. 11. 1920)

Gardener

Sydenham
Christchurch

6 years
3 days

The Residence of the Bride, 30 Riccld St., Merivale

174

4 January 1921

No	4
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alexander Stevenson	Agnes McWhirter Campbell
BDM Match (74%)	David Alexander Stevenson Munro	Agnes Maitland Campbell
	💍 1921/2327
Condition	Widower	Spinster (Divorced Decree Absolute 27. 11. 1920)
Profession	Gardener
Age		30
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 years	3 days
Marriage Place	The Residence of the Bride, 30 Riccld St., Merivale
Folio	174
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister

4 January 1921

John Thomas Birch
Lena Coker

John Thomas Birch
Lena Coker
💍 1921/2328

Bachelor
Spinster

Residence of Mr. Barnett, 343 St. Asaph Street, Christchurch
Residence of Mr. Barnett, 343 St. Asaph Street, Christchurch

2 years

175

4 January 1921

Rev. R. B. Ryburn, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomas Birch	Lena Coker
	💍 1921/2328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place	Residence of Mr. Barnett, 343 St. Asaph Street, Christchurch	Residence of Mr. Barnett, 343 St. Asaph Street, Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place
Folio	175
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. B. Ryburn, 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).