Intentions to Marry, 1922 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840509, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1922 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.

1922f contains pages 2059-2580, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2360

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 1922 Registrar Lovell

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

4 December 1922

Edwin Purcell Meachen
Adelaide May Smith

Edwin Purcell Meachen
Adelaide May Smith
💍 1922/6961

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine-driver
Domestic duties

27
20

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days

Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton

9179

William Amos Smith, Father of Minor

4 December 1922

Rev. J. J. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	70
Date of Notice	4 December 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Purcell Meachen	Adelaide May Smith
	💍 1922/6961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine-driver	Domestic duties
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence		3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton
Folio	9179
Consent	William Amos Smith, Father of Minor
Date of Certificate	4 December 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

12 December 1922

Joseph Pontefract Boothroyd
Mary Martha Paterson

Joseph Pontefract Boothroyd
Mary Martha Paterson
💍 1922/6962

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic duties

35
22

Allenton
Ashburton

15 years
5 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton

9180

12 December 1922

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	71
Date of Notice	12 December 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Pontefract Boothroyd	Mary Martha Paterson
	💍 1922/6962
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	35	22
Dwelling Place	Allenton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	15 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton
Folio	9180
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

13 December 1922

George Henry King
Alice Drummond

George Henry Ching
Alice Drummond
💍 1922/6963

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Dressmaker

21
24

Ashburton
Ashburton

9 years
12 years

Baptist Church, Ashburton

9181

13 December 1922

Rev. C. S. Matthews, Baptist

No	72
Date of Notice	13 December 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry King	Alice Drummond
BDM Match (94%)	George Henry Ching	Alice Drummond
	💍 1922/6963
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Dressmaker
Age	21	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	9 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Ashburton
Folio	9181
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 December 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. S. Matthews, Baptist

21 December 1922

Stanley John Prattley
Mary Elizabeth Davidson

Stanley John Prattley
Mary Elizabeth Davidson
💍 1922/6964

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Domestic duties

39
19

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 years
19 years

Office of the Registrar, Ashburton

9182

Mary Henderson, Mother of Minor

21 December 1922

M. W. White, Registrar

No	73
Date of Notice	21 December 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley John Prattley	Mary Elizabeth Davidson
	💍 1922/6964
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Domestic duties
Age	39	19
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Ashburton
Folio	9182
Consent	Mary Henderson, Mother of Minor
Date of Certificate	21 December 1922
Officiating Minister	M. W. White, Registrar

22 December 1922

Harry Woolaston Collins
Margaret Copland

Harry Woolaston Collins
Margaret Copland
💍 1922/7343

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant
Nurse

45
39

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 days
7 months

Presbyterian Church, Chertsey

9590

22 December 1922

Rev. A. S. Morrison, M.A., Presbyterian

No	74
Date of Notice	22 December 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Woolaston Collins	Margaret Copland
	💍 1922/7343
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant	Nurse
Age	45	39
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Chertsey
Folio	9590
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Morrison, M.A., 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).