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 2414

District of Ashburton 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

2nd January 1924

Maurice Vincent Daly
Catherine Mary Crowe

Maurice Vincent Daly
Catherine Mary Crowe
💍 1924/10101

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

27
21

Ashburton
Ashburton

3 months
3 months

Roman Catholic church

2123

2nd January 1924

Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	6
Date of Notice	2nd January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Vincent Daly	Catherine Mary Crowe
	💍 1924/10101
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church
Folio	2123
Consent
Date of Certificate	2nd January 1924
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

23rd January 1924

James Jennings McCormick
Florence May Nicholls

James Jennings McCormick
Florence May Nicholls
💍 1924/10102

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

53
17

Ashburton
Ashburton

2 years
19 years

Office of the Registrar, Ashburton

2124

Francis M. W. White, father of minor

23rd January 1924

M. W. White, Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	23rd January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Jennings McCormick	Florence May Nicholls
	💍 1924/10102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	53	17
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Ashburton
Folio	2124
Consent	Francis M. W. White, father of minor
Date of Certificate	23rd January 1924
Officiating Minister	M. W. White, Registrar

25th January 1924

Daniel Laffey
Dorothy Alena Rogers Thomas

Daniel Laffey
Dorothy Alina Rogers Thomas
💍 1924/10103

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

20
19

Ashburton
Ashburton

19 years
6 years

Roman Catholic church, Ashburton

2125

John Laffey, father of minor; Frank Thomas, guardian of minor

25th January 1924

Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	8
Date of Notice	25th January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Laffey	Dorothy Alena Rogers Thomas
BDM Match (98%)	Daniel Laffey	Dorothy Alina Rogers Thomas
	💍 1924/10103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	19 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church, Ashburton
Folio	2125
Consent	John Laffey, father of minor; Frank Thomas, guardian of minor
Date of Certificate	25th January 1924
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

25th January 1924

Thomas Patrick Gill
Catherine Margaret Dwyer

Thomas Patrick Gill
Catherine Margaret Dwyer
💍 1924/10111

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

28
27

Ashburton
Ashburton

5 years
27 years

Roman Catholic church, Ashburton

2126

25th January 1924

Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	9
Date of Notice	25th January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Patrick Gill	Catherine Margaret Dwyer
	💍 1924/10111
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	5 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic church, Ashburton
Folio	2126
Consent
Date of Certificate	25th January 1924
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

28th January 1924

Frederick Shearer
Margaret Janet Hodgson

Frederick Shearer
Margaret Janet Hodgson
💍 1924/10122

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder
dressmaker

25
23

Ashburton
Ashburton

25 years
10 years

St. Andrews Presbyterian church, Ashburton

2127

28th January 1924

Rev. George Miller, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	28th January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Shearer	Margaret Janet Hodgson
	💍 1924/10122
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder	dressmaker
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	25 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Presbyterian church, Ashburton
Folio	2127
Consent
Date of Certificate	28th January 1924
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).