Intentions to Marry, 1905 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840429, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 404

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1905

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

7 January 1905

Sir Lister Holt Armishaw
Margaret McDonald Anderson

Sir Lister Holt Armishaw
Margaret McDonald Anderson
💍 1905/6309

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

26 years
25 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
14 years

In the house of Mr. Jno: Stewardson, 62 Albany Street, Dunedin

05/1345

7 January 1905

T. Nisbet

No	8
Date of Notice	7 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sir Lister Holt Armishaw	Margaret McDonald Anderson
	💍 1905/6309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	26 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	14 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. Jno: Stewardson, 62 Albany Street, Dunedin
Folio	05/1345
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1905
Officiating Minister	T. Nisbet

9 January 1905

Theodore Oswald Padman
Mercy Meadowcroft

Theodore Oswald Padman
Mercy Meadowcroft
💍 1905/6362

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker
Dressmaker

22 years
24 years

Mornington
Mornington

3 years
3 days

In the Methodist Church, Mornington

05/1397

9 January 1905

T. G. Brooke

No	9
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Theodore Oswald Padman	Mercy Meadowcroft
	💍 1905/6362
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker	Dressmaker
Age	22 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Mornington	Mornington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	In the Methodist Church, Mornington
Folio	05/1397
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	T. G. Brooke

9 January 1905

William Gray Matheson
Harriet Christina Donaldson

William Gray Mathieson
Harriet Christina Donaldson
💍 1905/5042

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter
Dressmaker

25 years
21 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
3 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

05/1298

9 January 1905

R. Maxwell

No	10
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gray Matheson	Harriet Christina Donaldson
BDM Match (98%)	William Gray Mathieson	Harriet Christina Donaldson
	💍 1905/5042
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Dressmaker
Age	25 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	3 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	05/1298
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	R. Maxwell

11 January 1905

David Cameron Day
Elizabeth Margaret Day

David Cameron
Elizabeth Margaret Day
💍 1905/5041

Bachelor
Widow

Fireman

32 years
42 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
20 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

05/1297

11 January 1905

R. Maxwell

No	11
Date of Notice	11 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Cameron Day	Elizabeth Margaret Day
BDM Match (88%)	David Cameron	Elizabeth Margaret Day
	💍 1905/5041
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Fireman
Age	32 years	42 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	05/1297
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1905
Officiating Minister	R. Maxwell

12 January 1905

David Duncan
Evelyn Donald

David Duncan
Evelyn Donald
💍 1905/6390

Bachelor
Spinster

Assurance Superintendent

29 years
29 years

Dunedin
Milton

7 months
3 days

In the house of Mr. J. H. Petrie

05/1511

12 January 1905

George Miller

No	12
Date of Notice	12 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Duncan	Evelyn Donald
	💍 1905/6390
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assurance Superintendent
Age	29 years	29 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Milton
Length of Residence	7 months	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. J. H. Petrie
Folio	05/1511
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1905
Officiating Minister	George Miller

12 January 1905

Alfred Edward Storey
Delia Fahey

Alfred Edward Storey
Delia Fahey
💍 1905/6314

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

26 years
24 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 days
14 days

In the Vestry of St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

05/1367

12 January 1905

P. Murphy

No	13
Date of Notice	12 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Storey	Delia Fahey
	💍 1905/6314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	26 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	In the Vestry of St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	05/1367
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1905
Officiating Minister	P. Murphy

12 January 1905

William Murphy
Frances Olsen

William Murphy
Frances Olsen
💍 1905/7239

Bachelor
Spinster

Wheelwright

33 years
22 years

South Dunedin
South Dunedin

1 week
1 week

In St. Patrick's Basilica, South Dunedin

05/1381

12 January 1905

Jas. Coffey

No	14
Date of Notice	12 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Murphy	Frances Olsen
	💍 1905/7239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wheelwright
Age	33 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	South Dunedin	South Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	In St. Patrick's Basilica, South Dunedin
Folio	05/1381
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Jas. Coffey

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 1903. 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).