Intentions to Marry, 1925 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840533, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1925 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.

1925f contains pages 2177-2702, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2325

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar Not specified

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

18 March 1925

William Keir
Mary Gooding

William Keir
Mary Gooding
💍 1925/1550

Widower 10-5-1918
Spinster

Joiner
Domestic

28
21

Nelson
Nelson

6 months
1 1/2 years

Presbyterian Church, Nelson

25/2199

18 March 1925

Rev. James McNeill, Presbyterian

No	21
Date of Notice	18 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Keir	Mary Gooding
	💍 1925/1550
Condition	Widower 10-5-1918	Spinster
Profession	Joiner	Domestic
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	6 months	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nelson
Folio	25/2199
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. James McNeill, Presbyterian

19 March 1925

Albert Bevan Jones
Roberta Annie Parker

Albert Bevan Jones
Roberta Annie Parker
💍 1925/1551

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic

32
28

Nelson
Nelson

8 years
28 years

All Saints' Church of England, Nelson

25/2200

19 March 1925

Rev. Canon Dart, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	19 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Bevan Jones	Roberta Annie Parker
	💍 1925/1551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	8 years	28 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church of England, Nelson
Folio	25/2200
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Dart, Church of England

25 March 1925

Sydney William Smith
Olive Linton Morrison

Sydney William Smith
Olive Linton Morrison
💍 1925/1552

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

25
25

Nelson
Nelson

2 days
25 years

St. Andrew's Church of England, Wakapuaka

25/2201

25 March 1925

Rev. G. H. Schurr, Church of England

No	23
Date of Notice	25 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney William Smith	Olive Linton Morrison
	💍 1925/1552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	2 days	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church of England, Wakapuaka
Folio	25/2201
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Schurr, Church of England

28 March 1925

Maurice Robert Way
Eva Kathleen Burrows

Maurice Robert Way
Eva Kathleen Burrows
💍 1925/1560

Bachelor
Spinster

Factory Employee
Domestic

21
19

Nelson
Brightwater

21 years
12 years

Residence of Mrs. Rae, Hampden Street West, Nelson

25/2202

Emma Eliza Burrows (mother)

28 March 1925

Commandant Sanssom, Salvation Army

No	24
Date of Notice	28 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Robert Way	Eva Kathleen Burrows
	💍 1925/1560
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Factory Employee	Domestic
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Brightwater
Length of Residence	21 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Rae, Hampden Street West, Nelson
Folio	25/2202
Consent	Emma Eliza Burrows (mother)
Date of Certificate	28 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Commandant Sanssom, Salvation Army

31 March 1925

Raymond Gerald Coleman
Olive May White

Raymond Gerald Coleman
Olive May White
💍 1925/1571

Bachelor
Spinster

Car Driver
Domestic

32
30

Nelson
Riwaka

4 days
1 month

Trinity Presbyterian Church, Nelson

25/2203

31 March 1925

Rev. James McNeill, Presbyterian Minister

No	25
Date of Notice	31 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Gerald Coleman	Olive May White
	💍 1925/1571
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Car Driver	Domestic
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Riwaka
Length of Residence	4 days	1 month
Marriage Place	Trinity Presbyterian Church, Nelson
Folio	25/2203
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. James McNeill, Presbyterian Minister

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).