Intentions to Marry, 1910 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840444, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1910 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1910a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1910b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1910c).

Page 744

District of Port Chalmers Quarter ending 31 March 1910 Registrar George Galloway Chisholm

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

8 January 1910

Anton Middendorf
Clara Daisy Hotton (m.n. Morris)

Anton Middendorf
Clara Daisy Hotton
💍 1910/1742

Widower
Divorced (decree absolute produced dated 25.9.09)

Fisherman
Domestic duties

38
31

Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers

5 years
5 years

Church of England, Port Chalmers

10/1873

8 January 1910

Rev. G. W. Christian

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Anton Middendorf	Clara Daisy Hotton (m.n. Morris)
BDM Match (78%)	Anton Middendorf	Clara Daisy Hotton
	💍 1910/1742
Condition	Widower	Divorced (decree absolute produced dated 25.9.09)
Profession	Fisherman	Domestic duties
Age	38	31
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Port Chalmers
Folio	10/1873
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Christian

8 February 1910

James Godso Ross
Euphemia Bruce Anderson

James Godso Ross
Euphemia Bruce Anderson
💍 1910/1745

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic duties

26
27

Usual - Ravensbourne, Present - Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers

26 years
27 years

Congregational Church, Port Chalmers

10/1876

8 February 1910

Rev. Wm. M. Grant

No	2
Date of Notice	8 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Godso Ross	Euphemia Bruce Anderson
	💍 1910/1745
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic duties
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Usual - Ravensbourne, Present - Port Chalmers	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	26 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Port Chalmers
Folio	10/1876
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. M. Grant

9 February 1910

Edmund Newman Hall Shingleton
Alice Maud Mary Ward

Edmund Newman Hall Shingleton
Alice Maud Mary Ward
💍 1910/1748

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter
Tailoress

24
24

Usual - A. E. Talley, Dunedin Valley, Present - Port Chalmers
Sawyers Bay

24 years
14 years

Residence of Henry Ward, Roseneath, Sawyers Bay (3 days)

10/1879

9 February 1910

Rev. David Sinclair Mason

No	3
Date of Notice	9 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Newman Hall Shingleton	Alice Maud Mary Ward
	💍 1910/1748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter	Tailoress
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Usual - A. E. Talley, Dunedin Valley, Present - Port Chalmers	Sawyers Bay
Length of Residence	24 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Henry Ward, Roseneath, Sawyers Bay (3 days)
Folio	10/1879
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Sinclair Mason

21 February 1910

Thomas Emanuel Short
Frances Hilma Elizabeth Olsen

Thomas Emanuel Short
Frances Hilma Elizabeth Olsen
💍 1910/1746

Bachelor
Spinster

Hammerman
Domestic duties

27
26

Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers

6 years
about 25 years

Residence of Robert Anderson, Careys Bay, Port Chalmers

10/1877

21 February 1910

Rev. Josiah Ward

No	4
Date of Notice	21 February 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Emanuel Short	Frances Hilma Elizabeth Olsen
	💍 1910/1746
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hammerman	Domestic duties
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	6 years	about 25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Robert Anderson, Careys Bay, Port Chalmers
Folio	10/1877
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. Josiah Ward

21 March 1910

George Turnbull Hodgson
Eliza Hall

George Turnbull Hodgson
Eliza Hall
💍 1910/1747

Divorced (decree absolute produced dated 4.2.10)
Spinster

Carter
Domestic duties

37
29

Port Chalmers
Purakanui Road, near Port Chalmers

37 years
29 years

Residence of John Hodgson, Sawyers Bay Road, near Port Chalmers

10/1878

21 March 1910

Rev. Alexander Whyte

No	5
Date of Notice	21 March 1910
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Turnbull Hodgson	Eliza Hall
	💍 1910/1747
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute produced dated 4.2.10)	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Domestic duties
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Purakanui Road, near Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	37 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Hodgson, Sawyers Bay Road, near Port Chalmers
Folio	10/1878
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1910
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alexander Whyte

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).