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 2471

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 September 1925 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

20 July 1925

Archibald John Rattray
Ethel Rita Osborne

Archibald John Rattray
Ethel Rita Osborne
💍 1925/7302

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
domestic duties

29
21

Ashburton
Ashburton

13 years
21 years

Office of the Registrar, Ashburton

7307

20 July 1925

W. W. White, Registrar

No	44
Date of Notice	20 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald John Rattray	Ethel Rita Osborne
	💍 1925/7302
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	domestic duties
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	13 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Ashburton
Folio	7307
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1925
Officiating Minister	W. W. White, Registrar

21 July 1925

William John Watt
Jane Mary Ann Howard Devane

William John Watt
Jane Mary Ann Howard Devane
💍 1925/7303

Bachelor
Spinster

Police constable
domestic duties

33
26

Ashburton
Ashburton

14 years

Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton

7308

21 July 1925

Very Rev Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	45
Date of Notice	21 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Watt	Jane Mary Ann Howard Devane
	💍 1925/7303
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police constable	domestic duties
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence		14 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton
Folio	7308
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Very Rev Dean O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

25 July 1925

Frederick Maxwell Jackson
Vera Maud Holland

Frederick Maxwell Jackson
Vera Maud Hollland
💍 1925/7304

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

35
31

Ashburton
Ashburton

14 years

Methodist Church, Mayfield

7309

25 July 1925

Mr James Belshaw, Methodist

No	46
Date of Notice	25 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Maxwell Jackson	Vera Maud Holland
BDM Match (97%)	Frederick Maxwell Jackson	Vera Maud Hollland
	💍 1925/7304
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	35	31
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence		14 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Mayfield
Folio	7309
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Mr James Belshaw, Methodist

31 July 1925

Harold Hinton Chisnall
Minnie Evaline Maidens

Harold Linton Chisnall
Minnie Evaline Maidens
💍 1925/7281

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
domestic duties

39
35

Ashburton
Ashburton

39 years
4 years

Church of England, Hinds

7310

31 July 1925

Rev James Hay, Church of England

No	47
Date of Notice	31 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Hinton Chisnall	Minnie Evaline Maidens
BDM Match (98%)	Harold Linton Chisnall	Minnie Evaline Maidens
	💍 1925/7281
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	domestic duties
Age	39	35
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	39 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hinds
Folio	7310
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev James Hay, Church of England

3 August 1925

Douglas David Robert Cresswell
Ella Dorothea Boys

Douglas David Robert Creswell
Ella Dorothea Boys
💍 1925/7282

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

31
29

Ashburton
Ashburton

13 years
2 years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton

7311

3 August 1925

Rev A. G. Irvine M.A., Presbyterian

No	48
Date of Notice	3 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas David Robert Cresswell	Ella Dorothea Boys
BDM Match (98%)	Douglas David Robert Creswell	Ella Dorothea Boys
	💍 1925/7282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Ashburton
Length of Residence	13 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Ashburton
Folio	7311
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev A. G. Irvine 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).

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).