Intentions to Marry, 1901 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840420, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 22 2025

1901 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 695

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar M. J. Call

No	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
558	27 December 1901	Robert Duncan Junr Edith Maud Dowse	Robert Duncan Edith Maud Dowse 💍 1901/4890	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 years	In the house of Revd W. T. Sinclair, Dunedin	01/5486		27 December 1901	Revd W. T. Sinclair, Wesleyan Minister
559	27 December 1901	Francis Walter Narramore Ede Anna Tilbrook Rowe	Francis Walker Harramore Ede Anna Tilbrook Rowe 💍 1901/5974	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer	24 22	South Dunedin South Dunedin	5 months 3 days	In the Salvation Army Barracks, South Dunedin	01/5471		27 December 1901	Colonel Thomas Estill, Salvation Army Officer
560	27 December 1901	Albert Edward Buhck Helen Baughan	Albert Edward Buhck Helen Baughan 💍 1902/1005	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	36 25	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 2 years	In St. Matthews Church, Dunedin	01/1243		27 December 1901	Revd W. Curzon Siggers, Church of England Minister
561	27 December 1901	James John Schofield Eliza Jane Thomson	James John Schofield Eliza Jane Thomson 💍 1901/4947	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 34	Mornington South Dunedin	8 years 13 years	In the house of Christina Thomson, South Dunedin	01/5517		27 December 1901	Revd W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
562	27 December 1901	Alexander McMillan Martha Bertenshaw	Alexander McMillan Jnr Martha Bertenshaw 💍 1902/1054	Bachelor Spinster	Striker	25 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 6 years	In the house of Alexander McMillan, Stafford Avenue, Dunedin	01/1267		27 December 1901	Revd D. Button, Presbyterian Minister
563	27 December 1901	Harry Greenwood Mary Ann Amelia Young	Harry Greenwood Mary Ann Amelia Young 💍 1901/4845	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	20 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	01/5458	Thomas Greenwood and John Young, fathers of minors	27 December 1901	M. J. Call, Registrar of Marriages
564	27 December 1901	William Charles Logan Maud Margaret Payton	William Charles Logan Maud Margaret Payton 💍 1902/404	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 26	Dunedin Dunedin	21 years 26 years	In the house of Thomas Samuel Payton, Castle Street, Dunedin	01/1322		27 December 1901	Revd W. T. Sinclair, Wesleyan 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).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1901. 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).