Intentions to Marry, 1906 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840432, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 413

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1906 Registrar Henry Maxwell

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

15 January 1906

Philip Fleming
Isabell Ogilvie

Philip Fleming
Isabell Ogilvie
💍 1906/2567

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

35
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
3 days

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

06/1245

12 January 1906

H. Maxwell

No	15
Date of Notice	15 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Fleming	Isabell Ogilvie
	💍 1906/2567
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	35	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	06/1245
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1906
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

13 January 1906

Joseph L. Jesse Johnstone
Elizabeth Arland

Joseph Jesse Johnstone
Elizabeth Arland Darrell
💍 1906/2627

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

26
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 years
7 years

In St. John's Church, Roslyn

06/1278

13 January 1906

Wm. Ronaldson

No	16
Date of Notice	13 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph L. Jesse Johnstone	Elizabeth Arland
BDM Match (77%)	Joseph Jesse Johnstone	Elizabeth Arland Darrell
	💍 1906/2627
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 years	7 years
Marriage Place	In St. John's Church, Roslyn
Folio	06/1278
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1906
Officiating Minister	Wm. Ronaldson

15 January 1906

Arthur Parker
Phoebe Withers Postlethwaite

Arthur Parker
Phoebe Withers Postlethwaite
💍 1906/2418

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
21

North East Valley
North East Valley

1 week
3 days

In the house of T. H. Rise, Dalkeith, North East Valley

06/1340

15 January 1906

T. H. Rise

No	17
Date of Notice	15 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Parker	Phoebe Withers Postlethwaite
	💍 1906/2418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	North East Valley	North East Valley
Length of Residence	1 week	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of T. H. Rise, Dalkeith, North East Valley
Folio	06/1340
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1906
Officiating Minister	T. H. Rise

15 January 1906

William Aitken
Martha Cook

William Aitken
Martha Cook
💍 1906/2546

Bachelor
Widow

Motorman
Tailoress

28
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
10 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

06/1247

15 January 1906

H. Maxwell

No	18
Date of Notice	15 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Aitken	Martha Cook
	💍 1906/2546
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Motorman	Tailoress
Age	28	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	06/1247
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1906
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

15 January 1906

William Grant
Elizabeth Blanch Cotton

William Grant
Elizabeth Blanch Cotton
💍 1906/2568

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman

24
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
26 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

06/1246

15 January 1906

H. Maxwell

No	19
Date of Notice	15 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Grant	Elizabeth Blanch Cotton
	💍 1906/2568
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	26 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	06/1246
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1906
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

15 January 1906

William Albert Sproat
Florence Isobel Blair

William Albert Sproat
Florence Isabel Blair
💍 1906/3809

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher

26
31

Abbotsford
Abbotsford

3 weeks
23 years

In the house of John Blair, Abbotsford

06/1339

15 January 1906

J. Kilpatrick

No	20
Date of Notice	15 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Albert Sproat	Florence Isobel Blair
BDM Match (98%)	William Albert Sproat	Florence Isabel Blair
	💍 1906/3809
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher
Age	26	31
Dwelling Place	Abbotsford	Abbotsford
Length of Residence	3 weeks	23 years
Marriage Place	In the house of John Blair, Abbotsford
Folio	06/1339
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1906
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick

16 January 1906

Herbert Walter Thompson
Agnes Grainger

Herbert Walter Thompson
Agnes Grainger
💍 1906/2664

Bachelor
Spinster

Gripman
Weaver

24
24

Roslyn
Roslyn

15 months
5 years

In the house of Rev. C. H. Laws, York Place, Dunedin

06/1316

16 January 1906

C. H. Laws

No	21
Date of Notice	16 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Walter Thompson	Agnes Grainger
	💍 1906/2664
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gripman	Weaver
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Roslyn	Roslyn
Length of Residence	15 months	5 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Rev. C. H. Laws, York Place, Dunedin
Folio	06/1316
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1906
Officiating Minister	C. H. Laws

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 1908. 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).