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 484

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1906

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

453

3 October 1906

John Brown
Jessie Meldrum

John Brown
Jessie Meldrum
💍 1906/7194

Bachelor
Spinster

Attendant

27 years
24 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
6 weeks

In the house of Mr. D. Ferguson, 106 Albany Street, Dunedin

06/7199

3 October 1906

Wm. Hewitson

No	453
Date of Notice	3 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Brown	Jessie Meldrum
	💍 1906/7194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Attendant
Age	27 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. D. Ferguson, 106 Albany Street, Dunedin
Folio	06/7199
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1906
Officiating Minister	Wm. Hewitson

454

3 October 1906

Alfred Kenelm Digby Smith
Mary Christina Butten

Alfred Kenelm Digby Smith
Mary Christian Cutten
💍 1906/7175

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

29 years
22 years

St. Kilda
Anderson's Bay

4 years
22 years

In St. Michael's Church

06/7199

3 October 1906

Edgar Ward

No	454
Date of Notice	3 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Kenelm Digby Smith	Mary Christina Butten
BDM Match (93%)	Alfred Kenelm Digby Smith	Mary Christian Cutten
	💍 1906/7175
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	29 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	St. Kilda	Anderson's Bay
Length of Residence	4 years	22 years
Marriage Place	In St. Michael's Church
Folio	06/7199
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1906
Officiating Minister	Edgar Ward

455

4 October 1906

William Bourd Fernie
Leah Thomson

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

28 years
25 years

Rothesay
Rothesay

20 years
18 years

In the Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin

06/7200

4 October 1906

Wm. Hewitson

No	455
Date of Notice	4 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bourd Fernie	Leah Thomson
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	28 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Rothesay	Rothesay
Length of Residence	20 years	18 years
Marriage Place	In the Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin
Folio	06/7200
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1906
Officiating Minister	Wm. Hewitson

456

4 October 1906

Arthur Clement Pitts
Helen Gunn

Arthur Clement Pitts
Helen Gunn
💍 1906/7143

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

27 years
26 years

South Dunedin
Dunedin

24 years
26 years

In St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin

06/7170

4 October 1906

Wm. Burgon-Seggers

No	456
Date of Notice	4 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Clement Pitts	Helen Gunn
	💍 1906/7143
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	27 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	South Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	24 years	26 years
Marriage Place	In St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin
Folio	06/7170
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1906
Officiating Minister	Wm. Burgon-Seggers

457

5 October 1906

Herbert Warner Gosling
Jemima Eaglisham

Herbert Warner Gosling
Jemima Eaglesham
💍 1906/7235

Bachelor
Widow

Railway Employee

30 years
38 years

North East Valley
North East Valley

1 week
6 months

In the house of Mr. John Dow, Dalziel, North East Valley

06/7174

5 October 1906

W. J. Hastie

No	457
Date of Notice	5 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Warner Gosling	Jemima Eaglisham
BDM Match (97%)	Herbert Warner Gosling	Jemima Eaglesham
	💍 1906/7235
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	30 years	38 years
Dwelling Place	North East Valley	North East Valley
Length of Residence	1 week	6 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. John Dow, Dalziel, North East Valley
Folio	06/7174
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1906
Officiating Minister	W. J. Hastie

458

5 October 1906

George Newey Patterson
Beatrice Jane

Bachelor
Spinster

Postman to [illegible]

27 years
24 years

Dunedin
Ravenstourne

24 years
23 years

In St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ravenstourne

06/7171

5 October 1906

W. M. Nicolson

No	458
Date of Notice	5 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Newey Patterson	Beatrice Jane
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postman to [illegible]
Age	27 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Ravenstourne
Length of Residence	24 years	23 years
Marriage Place	In St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ravenstourne
Folio	06/7171
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1906
Officiating Minister	W. M. Nicolson

459

6 October 1906

Launcelot Sherlock Longueville Graham
Mary Ann Lyons

Launcelot Sherlock de Longueville Graham
Mary Ann Lyons
💍 1906/7122

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist

22 years
29 years

St. Kilda
South Dunedin

1 year
7 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriage, Dunedin

06/7125

6 October 1906

H. Maxwell

No	459
Date of Notice	6 October 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Launcelot Sherlock Longueville Graham	Mary Ann Lyons
BDM Match (96%)	Launcelot Sherlock de Longueville Graham	Mary Ann Lyons
	💍 1906/7122
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist
Age	22 years	29 years
Dwelling Place	St. Kilda	South Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	7 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriage, Dunedin
Folio	06/7125
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1906
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

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).