Intentions to Marry, 1907 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840435, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1907 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1907a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1907b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1907c).

Page 527

District of East Taieri Quarter ending 31 March 1907 Registrar Gilbert Burness Burns

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

13 February 1907

George Dryden Broadley
Mary Walker Todd

George Dryden Broadley
Mary Walker Todd
💍 1907/1569

Bachelor
Spinster

factory operator

27
32

Mosgiel, Otago
Mosgiel, Otago

27 years
32 years

House of Mr. W. A. Todd, Mosgiel, Otago

07/1657

13 February 1907

Rev A W. Kinmont

No	1
Date of Notice	13 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Dryden Broadley	Mary Walker Todd
	💍 1907/1569
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	factory operator
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Mosgiel, Otago	Mosgiel, Otago
Length of Residence	27 years	32 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. W. A. Todd, Mosgiel, Otago
Folio	07/1657
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev A W. Kinmont

23 February 1907

Peter Edmond Birtles
Hannah Hunter Dowie

Peter Edmund Birtles
Hannah Hunter Dowie
💍 1907/1570

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
27

Wingatui, Otago
East Taieri, Otago

9 years
27 years

House of Mrs Jessie Dowie, East Taieri, Otago

07/1658

23 February 1907

Rev A W Kinmont

No	2
Date of Notice	23 February 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Edmond Birtles	Hannah Hunter Dowie
BDM Match (98%)	Peter Edmund Birtles	Hannah Hunter Dowie
	💍 1907/1570
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Wingatui, Otago	East Taieri, Otago
Length of Residence	9 years	27 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Jessie Dowie, East Taieri, Otago
Folio	07/1658
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev A W Kinmont

6 March 1907

William Easton
Elsie Madeline Fraser

William Easton
Elsie Madeline Fraser
💍 1907/1568

Bachelor
Spinster

accountant

34
24

Dunedin, Otago
Mosgiel, Otago

9 months
2 1/2 years

Presbyterian Church, Mosgiel, Otago

07/1656

6 March 1907

Rev J. Aitken, Mosgiel

No	3
Date of Notice	6 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Easton	Elsie Madeline Fraser
	💍 1907/1568
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	accountant
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin, Otago	Mosgiel, Otago
Length of Residence	9 months	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Mosgiel, Otago
Folio	07/1656
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Aitken, Mosgiel

8 March 1907

Andrew Fleming
Esther Olive Ellis

Andrew Fleming
Esther Olive Ellis
💍 1907/1567

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

32
19

Mosgiel, Otago
Mossburn, Otago

30 years
3 years

House of Mr John Ellis, Mossburn, Otago

07/1655

John Ellis, Father

8 March 1907

Rev J. Aitken

No	4
Date of Notice	8 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Fleming	Esther Olive Ellis
	💍 1907/1567
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Mosgiel, Otago	Mossburn, Otago
Length of Residence	30 years	3 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr John Ellis, Mossburn, Otago
Folio	07/1655
Consent	John Ellis, Father
Date of Certificate	8 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Aitken

26 March 1907

David Alfred Hughes
Jemima Jane Watson

David Alfred Hughes
Jemima Jane Watson
💍 1907/1852

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
20

Brighton, Otago
Brighton, Otago

3 days
17 years

House of Mr William Watson, Brighton, Otago

07/1971

William Watson, Father

26 March 1907

Rev J Kilpatrick

No	5
Date of Notice	26 March 1907
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alfred Hughes	Jemima Jane Watson
	💍 1907/1852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Brighton, Otago	Brighton, Otago
Length of Residence	3 days	17 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr William Watson, Brighton, Otago
Folio	07/1971
Consent	William Watson, Father
Date of Certificate	26 March 1907
Officiating Minister	Rev J Kilpatrick

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).