Intentions to Marry, 1924 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840525, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1924 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.

1924f contains pages 2129-2646, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2435

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1924

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

3 January 1924

William O'Neil Chapman
Esmeralda May Wood

William Oliver Chapman
Esmeralda May Wood
💍 1924/244

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

22
24

Opawa
Opawa

22 years
10 years

St. Mark's Church, Opawa

432

Name changed by Deed Poll, Christchurch, 16/7/23

3 January 1924

N. Williams, Anglican

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William O'Neil Chapman	Esmeralda May Wood
BDM Match (89%)	William Oliver Chapman	Esmeralda May Wood
	💍 1924/244
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Opawa	Opawa
Length of Residence	22 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Opawa
Folio	432
Consent	Name changed by Deed Poll, Christchurch, 16/7/23
Date of Certificate	3 January 1924
Officiating Minister	N. Williams, Anglican

4 January 1924

George Henry Saunders
Rita Gladys May Winter

George Henry Saunders
Rita Gladys May Winter
💍 1924/245

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
21

Christchurch
Swannanoa

3 days
21 years

Church of the Good Shepherd, Phillipstown

433

4 January 1924

P. Revell, Anglican

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Saunders	Rita Gladys May Winter
	💍 1924/245
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Swannanoa
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Good Shepherd, Phillipstown
Folio	433
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1924
Officiating Minister	P. Revell, Anglican

4 January 1924

Herbert George Kemp
Finella Felicia Rudman

Herbert George Kemp
Fenella Felicia Rudman
💍 1924/246

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

28
29

St. Albans
St. Albans

4 years
2 years

St. Paul's Church, Christchurch

434

4 January 1924

J. G. Butter, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert George Kemp	Finella Felicia Rudman
BDM Match (98%)	Herbert George Kemp	Fenella Felicia Rudman
	💍 1924/246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	St. Albans	St. Albans
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Christchurch
Folio	434
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1924
Officiating Minister	J. G. Butter, Presbyterian

4 January 1924

Hector Finell McKay
Ethel C. Beath

Hector Finch McKay
Ethel McBeath
💍 1924/223

Widower
Spinster

Retired Civil Servant

57
48

Merivale
Cashmere

12 years
8 years

Residence of Rev. R. Erwin, 82 Mansfield Avenue, St. Albans

435

Widower July 22, 1917

4 January 1924

R. Erwin, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	4 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector Finell McKay	Ethel C. Beath
BDM Match (81%)	Hector Finch McKay	Ethel McBeath
	💍 1924/223
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Retired Civil Servant
Age	57	48
Dwelling Place	Merivale	Cashmere
Length of Residence	12 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. R. Erwin, 82 Mansfield Avenue, St. Albans
Folio	435
Consent	Widower July 22, 1917
Date of Certificate	4 January 1924
Officiating Minister	R. Erwin, Presbyterian

5 January 1924

Harry Scanty Mason
Sybil Allison Isabel Sutherland

Harry Stanley Mason
Sybil Allison Isabel Sutherland
💍 1924/224

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman

32
32

Timaru
Christchurch

3 years
16 years

Methodist Church, Clarence Street, Riccarton

436

5 January 1924

J. D. Patchett, Methodist

No	5
Date of Notice	5 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Scanty Mason	Sybil Allison Isabel Sutherland
BDM Match (92%)	Harry Stanley Mason	Sybil Allison Isabel Sutherland
	💍 1924/224
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Christchurch
Length of Residence	3 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Clarence Street, Riccarton
Folio	436
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1924
Officiating Minister	J. D. Patchett, Methodist

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).