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 2485

District of Christchurch 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

8 January 1925

Ivor Robert Prescott
Sarah Smith Clarke

Ivor Robert Prescott
Sarah Smith Clark
💍 1925/331

Bachelor
Spinster

Timber Stacker

28
33

Christchurch
Christchurch

6 months
1 year 4 months

St. John's Church, Christchurch

1016

8 January 1925

J. F. Coursey, Anglican

No	21
Date of Notice	8 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ivor Robert Prescott	Sarah Smith Clarke
BDM Match (97%)	Ivor Robert Prescott	Sarah Smith Clark
	💍 1925/331
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Timber Stacker
Age	28	33
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 months	1 year 4 months
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Christchurch
Folio	1016
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. F. Coursey, Anglican

9 January 1925

Frederick Thomas Tyndall James Rees
Annie Amelia Noble

No folio no. in column on form and no matching record found.

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

36
38

Linwood
Sydenham

2 years
13 years

Methodist Church, Opawa

9 January 1925

T. J. Wallis, Methodist

No	22
Date of Notice	9 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Thomas Tyndall James Rees	Annie Amelia Noble
	💍 No folio no. in column on form and no matching record found.
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	36	38
Dwelling Place	Linwood	Sydenham
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Opawa
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1925
Officiating Minister	T. J. Wallis, Methodist

9 January 1925

Edward Gooch
Isobel Davidson Skinner

Edward Gooch Caigou
Isobel Davidson Skinner
💍 1925/332

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

22
24

Fendallton
Fendallton

2 weeks
5 months

Roman Catholic Presbytery, 29 Bowen Street, Riccarton

1017

9 January 1925

T. Hanrahan, Roman Catholic

No	23
Date of Notice	9 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Gooch	Isobel Davidson Skinner
BDM Match (82%)	Edward Gooch Caigou	Isobel Davidson Skinner
	💍 1925/332
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Fendallton	Fendallton
Length of Residence	2 weeks	5 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Presbytery, 29 Bowen Street, Riccarton
Folio	1017
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1925
Officiating Minister	T. Hanrahan, Roman Catholic

9 January 1925

Edmond Mulcahy
Honora Margaret Quinn

Edmond Mulcahy
Honora Margaret Quinn
💍 1925/333

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
28

Featherston
Christchurch

2 years
20 years

Church of the Sacred Heart, Addington

1018

9 January 1925

J. Quinn, Roman Catholic

No	24
Date of Notice	9 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmond Mulcahy	Honora Margaret Quinn
	💍 1925/333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Christchurch
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Sacred Heart, Addington
Folio	1018
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Quinn, Roman Catholic

10 January 1925

Lauris Neufield
Lilian Violet Passmore

Lauris Newfield
Lilian Violet Passmore
💍 1925/335

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
18

Sydenham
Sydenham

3 months
13 years

Registrar's Office, Christchurch

1019

George Frederick Wood Passmore, Father

10 January 1925

Registrar

No	25
Date of Notice	10 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lauris Neufield	Lilian Violet Passmore
BDM Match (97%)	Lauris Newfield	Lilian Violet Passmore
	💍 1925/335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Sydenham
Length of Residence	3 months	13 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Christchurch
Folio	1019
Consent	George Frederick Wood Passmore, Father
Date of Certificate	10 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).