Intentions to Marry, 1909 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840441, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1909 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1909a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1909b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1909c).

Page 530

District of Gabriels Quarter ending 30 June 1909 Registrar Alexander M. Eeyes

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

217

8 April 1909

Alfred Charles Sands
Kathleen Hewitson

Alfred Charles Sands
Kathleen Hewitson
💍 1909/2282

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

26
26

Wetherstones
Wetherstones

3 days
3 years

House of Mr Hamilton Hewitson Wetherstones

09/3537

Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

No	217
Date of Notice	8 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Charles Sands	Kathleen Hewitson
	💍 1909/2282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wetherstones	Wetherstones
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr Hamilton Hewitson Wetherstones
Folio	09/3537
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

218

8 April 1909

John Walker
Margaret Dumett

John Walker
Margaret Dunnett
💍 1909/2283

Bachelor
Spinster

Teamster
Clerk

25
24

Lawrence
Lawrence

3 years
1 year

House of George Dunnett Lawrence

09/3538

Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

No	218
Date of Notice	8 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Walker	Margaret Dumett
BDM Match (94%)	John Walker	Margaret Dunnett
	💍 1909/2283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teamster	Clerk
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Lawrence	Lawrence
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	House of George Dunnett Lawrence
Folio	09/3538
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

219

17 April 1909

John Samuel Gare
Margaret Jane Lomas

John Samuel Gare
Margaret Jane Lomas
💍 1909/2288

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

33
31

Waipori
Waipori

25 years
18 years

Church of England Waipori

09/3542

Rev. Isaac Richards (Church of England)

No	219
Date of Notice	17 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Samuel Gare	Margaret Jane Lomas
	💍 1909/2288
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Waipori	Waipori
Length of Residence	25 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Waipori
Folio	09/3542
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. Isaac Richards (Church of England)

220

21 April 1909

Thomas Dwyer Jnr
Annie Hopkins

Thomas Dwyer
Annie Hopkins
💍 1909/2284

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
23

Lawrence
Lawrence

28 years
6 years

The Camp Hotel Peel Street Lawrence

09/3539

Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

No	220
Date of Notice	21 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Dwyer Jnr	Annie Hopkins
BDM Match (88%)	Thomas Dwyer	Annie Hopkins
	💍 1909/2284
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Lawrence	Lawrence
Length of Residence	28 years	6 years
Marriage Place	The Camp Hotel Peel Street Lawrence
Folio	09/3539
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

221

29 May 1909

Robert Coulter
Georgina Arbuckle

Robert Coulter
Georgina Arbuckle
💍 1909/2281

Widower
Spinster

Butcher

33
26

Lawrence
Lawrence

2 years
23 years

Salvation Army Hall Lawrence

09/3536

Adjutant Turkettle (Salvation Army)

No	221
Date of Notice	29 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Coulter	Georgina Arbuckle
	💍 1909/2281
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Lawrence	Lawrence
Length of Residence	2 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall Lawrence
Folio	09/3536
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Adjutant Turkettle (Salvation Army)

222

12 June 1909

Donald James Munro
Florence Jane Milburn

Donald James Munro
Florence Jane Milburn
💍 1909/2285

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

34
21

Lawrence
Lawrence

3 days
3 months

House of Edward Moseman Milburn Campbellton St Lawrence

09/3540

Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

No	222
Date of Notice	12 June 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald James Munro	Florence Jane Milburn
	💍 1909/2285
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	34	21
Dwelling Place	Lawrence	Lawrence
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	House of Edward Moseman Milburn Campbellton St Lawrence
Folio	09/3540
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Scott-allan (Presbyterian)

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).