Intentions to Marry, 1923 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840517, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 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.

1923f contains pages 2125-2670, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2427

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 1923 Registrar W. W. White

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 October 1923

Francis Curtis Good
Mary Anne Blackwell

Francis Curtis Good
Mary Anne Blackwell
💍 1923/7408

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

33
33

Ashburton
Ashburton

4 years
3 years

Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton

9635

4 October 1923

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	63
Date of Notice	4 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Curtis Good	Mary Anne Blackwell
	💍 1923/7408
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton
Folio	9635
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

4 October 1923

Hector William John McLean
Daisy Moore Crawford

Hector William John McLean
Daisy Moore Crawford
💍 1923/7409

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

27
31

Ashburton
Ashburton

27 years
11 years

Presbyterian Church, Hakanui

9636

4 October 1923

Mr. John Kirk, Presbyterian

No	64
Date of Notice	4 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector William John McLean	Daisy Moore Crawford
	💍 1923/7409
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	27 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hakanui
Folio	9636
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Mr. John Kirk, Presbyterian

4 October 1923

Sidney Lawrence Bushell
Hilda Mary Thomas
formerly Hoglund

Sidney Laurence Bushell
Hilda Mary Thomas
💍 1923/7411

Widower
Widow

Gardener
domestic duties

35
34

Ashburton
Ashburton

30 years
12 months

at the dwelling of W. J. Thomas, 15 Victoria Street, Ashburton

4 October 1923

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	65
Date of Notice	4 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Lawrence Bushell	Hilda Mary Thomas formerly Hoglund
BDM Match (98%)	Sidney Laurence Bushell	Hilda Mary Thomas
	💍 1923/7411
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Gardener	domestic duties
Age	35	34
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	30 years	12 months
Marriage Place	at the dwelling of W. J. Thomas, 15 Victoria Street, Ashburton
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

5 October 1923

William Graham McCormick
Mary Eden Moore

William Graham McCormick
Mary Ellen Moore
💍 1923/7410

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

39
24

Ashburton
Ashburton

39 years
24 years

Presbyterian Church, Hinds

9637

5 October 1923

Rev. Robert McCully, Presbyterian

No	66
Date of Notice	5 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Graham McCormick	Mary Eden Moore
BDM Match (94%)	William Graham McCormick	Mary Ellen Moore
	💍 1923/7410
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	39	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	39 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hinds
Folio	9637
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert McCully, Presbyterian

9 October 1923

Sidney Lawrence Bushell
Hilda Mary Thomas
formerly Hoglund

Sidney Laurence Bushell
Hilda Mary Thomas
💍 1923/7411

Widower
Widow

Gardener
domestic duties

37
34

Ashburton
Ashburton

30 years
12 months

Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton

9638

9 October 1923

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	67
Date of Notice	9 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Lawrence Bushell	Hilda Mary Thomas formerly Hoglund
BDM Match (98%)	Sidney Laurence Bushell	Hilda Mary Thomas
	💍 1923/7411
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Gardener	domestic duties
Age	37	34
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	30 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton
Folio	9638
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1923
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).