Intentions to Marry, 1912 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840450, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1912 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne (1912a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1912b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1912c).

Page 531

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1912 Registrar Henry Maxwell

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

617

26 November 1912

John Stephen Morrison
Charlotte Gertrude Orange

John Stephen Morrison
Charlotte Gertrude Orange
💍 1912/8834

Bachelor
Spinster

carpenter

28
30

Dunedin
North East Valley

21 years
5 years

In the house of Mr A. E. Orange, 8 Arden Street, North East Valley

12/8370

26 November 1912

H. B. Gray

No	617
Date of Notice	26 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stephen Morrison	Charlotte Gertrude Orange
	💍 1912/8834
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	carpenter
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	North East Valley
Length of Residence	21 years	5 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr A. E. Orange, 8 Arden Street, North East Valley
Folio	12/8370
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1912
Officiating Minister	H. B. Gray

618

26 November 1912

John Henry Jarvis
Mary Parker

John Henry Jarvis
Mary Parker
💍 1912/8096

Edward Francis Richardson
Mary Parker
💍 1912/1089

Widower
Spinster

tinsmith

33
17

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 months
14 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

12/6679

William Parker, father

26 November 1912

H. Maxwell

No	618
Date of Notice	26 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Jarvis	Mary Parker
	💍 1912/8096
BDM Match (60%)	Edward Francis Richardson	Mary Parker
	💍 1912/1089
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	tinsmith
Age	33	17
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 months	14 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	12/6679
Consent	William Parker, father
Date of Certificate	26 November 1912
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

619

27 November 1912

John Dickie
Margaret Theresa Keliher

John Dickie
Margaret Theresa Keliher
💍 1912/5325

Bachelor
Widow

sheep-farmer

35
42

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

12/8908

27 November 1912

J. Coffey

No	619
Date of Notice	27 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dickie	Margaret Theresa Keliher
	💍 1912/5325
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	sheep-farmer
Age	35	42
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	12/8908
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1912
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey

620

27 November 1912

Thomas Wright
Ann Melville

Thomas Wright
Ann Melville
💍 1912/5232

Widower
Spinster

railway employee

43
41

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
41 years

In St. Andrew's Bible School, Walker Street, Dunedin

12/8790

27 November 1912

R. Waddell

No	620
Date of Notice	27 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Wright	Ann Melville
	💍 1912/5232
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	railway employee
Age	43	41
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	41 years
Marriage Place	In St. Andrew's Bible School, Walker Street, Dunedin
Folio	12/8790
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1912
Officiating Minister	R. Waddell

621

27 November 1912

Alfred Henry Pettitt
Elizabeth White McLiskey

Alfred Henry Pettitt
Elizabeth White McLiskey
💍 1912/8097

Bachelor
Spinster

Musician

23
22

Roslyn
Maori Hill

22 years
1 year

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

12/6680

27 November 1912

H. Maxwell

No	621
Date of Notice	27 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Henry Pettitt	Elizabeth White McLiskey
	💍 1912/8097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Musician
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Roslyn	Maori Hill
Length of Residence	22 years	1 year
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	12/6680
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1912
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

622

28 November 1912

John Oliver Campbell
Mary Eliza Cecilia Allen

John Oliver Campbell
Mary Eliza Cecilia Allen
💍 1912/8098

Bachelor
Spinster

warehouseman

25
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
23 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

12/6681

28 November 1912

H. Maxwell

No	622
Date of Notice	28 November 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Oliver Campbell	Mary Eliza Cecilia Allen
	💍 1912/8098
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	warehouseman
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	23 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	12/6681
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 November 1912
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).