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 2482

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 February 1921

Malcolm Ward Beaver
Ethel Ruthven Greig

Malcolm Ward Beaver
Ethel Ruthven Greig
💍 1921/907

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
24

Redcliffs
Merivale

25 years
24 years

Knox Church, Bealey Avenue, Christchurch

262

1 February 1921

B. Erwin, Presbyterian

No	94
Date of Notice	1 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Malcolm Ward Beaver	Ethel Ruthven Greig
	💍 1921/907
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Redcliffs	Merivale
Length of Residence	25 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Bealey Avenue, Christchurch
Folio	262
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Erwin, Presbyterian

1 February 1921

Leonard Haughton
Linda Alberta Niall

Leonard Houghton
Linda Alberta Niall
💍 1921/908

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

22
19

Linwood
Sydenham

22 years
12 years

St. Saviours Church, Sydenham

263

Daniel Charles Niall, Father

1 February 1921

W. P. Hughes, Anglican

No	95
Date of Notice	1 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Haughton	Linda Alberta Niall
BDM Match (97%)	Leonard Houghton	Linda Alberta Niall
	💍 1921/908
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Linwood	Sydenham
Length of Residence	22 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviours Church, Sydenham
Folio	263
Consent	Daniel Charles Niall, Father
Date of Certificate	1 February 1921
Officiating Minister	W. P. Hughes, Anglican

2 February 1921

William Michael George Deaner
Alice Minnie Manton

William Michael George Deamer
Alice Minnie Manton
💍 1921/909

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
30

St. Albans
Oamaru

31 years
30 years

St. Mary's Presbytery, Manchester Street, Christchurch

264

2 February 1921

P. Regnault, Roman Catholic

No	96
Date of Notice	2 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Michael George Deaner	Alice Minnie Manton
BDM Match (98%)	William Michael George Deamer	Alice Minnie Manton
	💍 1921/909
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	St. Albans	Oamaru
Length of Residence	31 years	30 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Presbytery, Manchester Street, Christchurch
Folio	264
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1921
Officiating Minister	P. Regnault, Roman Catholic

2 February 1921

Richard John Cardigan Mann
Alma Marie Shaw

Richard John Cardigan Mann
Alma Marie Shaw
💍 1921/910

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer Assistant

30
21

Woolston
Woolston

10 years
9 years

Roman Catholic Sacristy, Barbadoes Street, Christchurch

265

2 February 1921

J. A. Kennedy, Roman Catholic

No	97
Date of Notice	2 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard John Cardigan Mann	Alma Marie Shaw
	💍 1921/910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer Assistant
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Woolston	Woolston
Length of Residence	10 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Sacristy, Barbadoes Street, Christchurch
Folio	265
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. A. Kennedy, Roman Catholic

3 February 1921

Charles Michael Dowd
Jane Agatha Stemmetz

Charles Michael Dowd
Jane Agatha Steinmetz
💍 1921/911

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
28

Auckland
Christchurch

2 years
28 years

Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch

266

3 February 1921

J. O'Connor, Roman Catholic

No	98
Date of Notice	3 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Michael Dowd	Jane Agatha Stemmetz
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Michael Dowd	Jane Agatha Steinmetz
	💍 1921/911
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch
Folio	266
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. O'Connor, Roman Catholic

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).