Intentions to Marry, 1913 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840453, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 527

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1913 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

383

1 July 1913

Peter Wadsworth
Margaret Ellen Todd

Peter Wadsworth
Margaret Ellen Todd
💍 1913/5031

Bachelor
Spinster

engine-driver

26
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
1 week

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/4684

1 July 1913

H. Maxwell

No	383
Date of Notice	1 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Wadsworth	Margaret Ellen Todd
	💍 1913/5031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	engine-driver
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	1 week
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/4684
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

384

1 July 1913

Nathaniel Malcolm
Mary Ann Hill

Nathaniel Malcolm
Mary Ann Hill
💍 1913/6179

Bachelor
Spinster

ironmonger

26
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 month
2 months

In the house of the Rev. C. Dallaston Main South Road Caversham

13/5738

1 July 1913

C. Dallaston

No	384
Date of Notice	1 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nathaniel Malcolm	Mary Ann Hill
	💍 1913/6179
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	ironmonger
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 month	2 months
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. C. Dallaston Main South Road Caversham
Folio	13/5738
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1913
Officiating Minister	C. Dallaston

385

2 July 1913

Charles Wesley Duncan
Elizabeth Madden

Charles Wesley Duncan
Elizabeth Madden
💍 1913/6181

Bachelor
Spinster

painter
milliner

28
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
24 years

In the Methodist Church King Edward Street North East Valley

13/6739

2 July 1913

H. L. Richards

No	385
Date of Notice	2 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Wesley Duncan	Elizabeth Madden
	💍 1913/6181
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	painter	milliner
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	24 years
Marriage Place	In the Methodist Church King Edward Street North East Valley
Folio	13/6739
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1913
Officiating Minister	H. L. Richards

386

2 July 1913

Joseph James Hackett
Marie May Lee Mason

Joseph James Hackett
Marie May Lee Mason
💍 1913/6037

Bachelor
Spinster

carter

26
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 years
3 years

In the house of W. H. Mason 66 Cumberland Street Dunedin

13/5743

William Henry Mason, father

2 July 1913

G. Heighway

No	386
Date of Notice	2 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph James Hackett	Marie May Lee Mason
	💍 1913/6037
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	carter
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	In the house of W. H. Mason 66 Cumberland Street Dunedin
Folio	13/5743
Consent	William Henry Mason, father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1913
Officiating Minister	G. Heighway

387

3 July 1913

Francis William Rouxel
Gertrude Elizabeth Sanderson

Francis William Rouxel
Gertrude Elizabeth Sanderson
💍 1913/7228

Bachelor
Spinster

carter

26
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
2 years

In the house of the Rev. R. Fairmaid 33 Young Street St Kilda

13/6990

3 July 1913

R. Fairmaid

No	387
Date of Notice	3 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis William Rouxel	Gertrude Elizabeth Sanderson
	💍 1913/7228
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	carter
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	2 years
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. R. Fairmaid 33 Young Street St Kilda
Folio	13/6990
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1913
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid

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).