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 277

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1909 Registrar Alex. Montgomery

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

28 April 1909

Jeremiah Augustin O'Connor
Maud Beatrice Spinski Page

Jeremiah Augustine O Connor
Maud Beatrice Page
💍 1909/2349

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

29 years
29 years

Timaru
Timaru

29 years
3 days

Registrar's Office, Timaru

09/3329

28 April 1909

Alex. Montgomery, Registrar

No	49
Date of Notice	28 April 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jeremiah Augustin O'Connor	Maud Beatrice Spinski Page
BDM Match (81%)	Jeremiah Augustine O Connor	Maud Beatrice Page
	💍 1909/2349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	29 years	29 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	29 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Timaru
Folio	09/3329
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1909
Officiating Minister	Alex. Montgomery, Registrar

5 May 1909

Thomas Robert Gordon
Rose Hardney

Thomas Robert Gordon
Rose Gardner
💍 1909/2365

Bachelor
Spinster

Optician
Milliner

29 years
23 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
23 years

Dwellinghouse of J. D. Gardner, Middle Street, Timaru

09/3321

5 May 1909

Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

No	50
Date of Notice	5 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Robert Gordon	Rose Hardney
BDM Match (92%)	Thomas Robert Gordon	Rose Gardner
	💍 1909/2365
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Optician	Milliner
Age	29 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of J. D. Gardner, Middle Street, Timaru
Folio	09/3321
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

6 May 1909

John Ernest George McIlroy
May Oea

John Ernest George McIlroy
May Oed
💍 1909/2347

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

22 years
24 years

Kensington
Kensington

18 years
1 week

Dwellinghouse of James McIlroy, Kensington

09/3319

6 May 1909

Samuel Buchanan, Independent Free Church Minister

No	51
Date of Notice	6 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ernest George McIlroy	May Oea
BDM Match (93%)	John Ernest George McIlroy	May Oed
	💍 1909/2347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	22 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Kensington	Kensington
Length of Residence	18 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of James McIlroy, Kensington
Folio	09/3319
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Samuel Buchanan, Independent Free Church Minister

4 May 1909

Walter Cooper Smith
Violet May Bowey

Walter Cooper-Smith
Violet May Howey
💍 1909/2366

Widower
Spinster

Grain Merchant
Domestic Duties

34 years
25 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
2 months

Dwellinghouse of James D. B. Bowey, Wilson Street, Timaru

09/3322

4 May 1909

Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

No	52
Date of Notice	4 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Cooper Smith	Violet May Bowey
BDM Match (94%)	Walter Cooper-Smith	Violet May Howey
	💍 1909/2366
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Grain Merchant	Domestic Duties
Age	34 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of James D. B. Bowey, Wilson Street, Timaru
Folio	09/3322
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

11 May 1909

John Lawlor
Alice McGowan

John Lawlor
Alice McGowan
💍 1909/3774

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

36
25 years

Ma Wars
Timaru

5 years
3 days

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

09/5097

11 May 1909

Rev. A. Le. Petit, Roman Catholic Priest

No	53
Date of Notice	11 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lawlor	Alice McGowan
	💍 1909/3774
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	25 years
Dwelling Place	Ma Wars	Timaru
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	09/5097
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Le. Petit, Roman Catholic Priest

14 May 1909

William Francis Averis
Jane Allan Dickson

William Francis Averis
Jane Allan Dickson
💍 1909/2367

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Domestic Duties

28 years
23 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
6 years

Dwellinghouse of Rev. W. Baumber, Butter Street, Timaru

09/3323

14 May 1909

Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

No	54
Date of Notice	14 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Averis	Jane Allan Dickson
	💍 1909/2367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Domestic Duties
Age	28 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of Rev. W. Baumber, Butter Street, Timaru
Folio	09/3323
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister

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).