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 535

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

430

24 July 1913

Albert Louis Ayers
Bridget Mary Walsh

Albert Louis Ayers
Bridget Mary Walsh
💍 1913/6606

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

31
30

Dunedin
St Kilda

31 years
30 years

In St Patrick's Basilica Vestry, South Dunedin

13/6343

24 July 1913

W. D. O'Neill

No	430
Date of Notice	24 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Louis Ayers	Bridget Mary Walsh
	💍 1913/6606
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St Kilda
Length of Residence	31 years	30 years
Marriage Place	In St Patrick's Basilica Vestry, South Dunedin
Folio	13/6343
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1913
Officiating Minister	W. D. O'Neill

431

24 July 1913

William Richard Sheridan
Mary Elizabeth Wigrath

William Richard Sheridan
Mary Elizabeth McGrath
💍 1913/5014

Bachelor
Spinster

bricklayer

21
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
18 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

13/4697

John Wigrath, father

24 July 1913

H. Maxwell

No	431
Date of Notice	24 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Richard Sheridan	Mary Elizabeth Wigrath
BDM Match (93%)	William Richard Sheridan	Mary Elizabeth McGrath
	💍 1913/5014
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	bricklayer
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	18 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	13/4697
Consent	John Wigrath, father
Date of Certificate	24 July 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

432

24 July 1913

Selwyn Beasley
Mary Edgar

Selwyn Beasley
Mary Edgar
💍 1913/5015

Bachelor
Spinster

coachdriver

35
27

Green Island
Green Island

6 years
27 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

13/4692

24 July 1913

H. Maxwell

No	432
Date of Notice	24 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Selwyn Beasley	Mary Edgar
	💍 1913/5015
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	coachdriver
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Green Island
Length of Residence	6 years	27 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	13/4692
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

433

25 July 1913

William Bodeman Legg
Williamina Bruce Mark

William Bodeman Legg
Williamina Bruce Mark
💍 1913/6035

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

32
39

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
39 years

In the house of W. A. Buskin, 143 Maclaggan Street, Dunedin

13/5764

25 July 1913

J. Carlisle

No	433
Date of Notice	25 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bodeman Legg	Williamina Bruce Mark
	💍 1913/6035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	32	39
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	39 years
Marriage Place	In the house of W. A. Buskin, 143 Maclaggan Street, Dunedin
Folio	13/5764
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1913
Officiating Minister	J. Carlisle

434

25 July 1913

George Thomas Hickey
Elizabeth Ann Uren

George Thomas Hickey
Elizabeth Ann Krell
💍 1913/6036

Bachelor
Spinster

lithographer
tailoress

28
29

Mornington
Mornington

27 years
29 years

In the Methodist Church, Regent Street, Mornington

13/5765

25 July 1913

J. W. Vealie

No	434
Date of Notice	25 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Thomas Hickey	Elizabeth Ann Uren
BDM Match (92%)	George Thomas Hickey	Elizabeth Ann Krell
	💍 1913/6036
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	lithographer	tailoress
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Mornington	Mornington
Length of Residence	27 years	29 years
Marriage Place	In the Methodist Church, Regent Street, Mornington
Folio	13/5765
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1913
Officiating Minister	J. W. Vealie

435

26 July 1913

John Moffat Wilson
Mary Dean Borrowman Whyte

John Moffat Wilson
Mary Dean Barrowman Whyte
💍 1913/6031

Bachelor
Spinster

warehouseman

43
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
20 years

In the house of the Rev. S. R. Orr, Maitland Street, Dunedin

13/5760

26 July 1913

S. R. Orr

No	435
Date of Notice	26 July 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Moffat Wilson	Mary Dean Borrowman Whyte
BDM Match (98%)	John Moffat Wilson	Mary Dean Barrowman Whyte
	💍 1913/6031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	warehouseman
Age	43	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. S. R. Orr, Maitland Street, Dunedin
Folio	13/5760
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1913
Officiating Minister	S. R. Orr

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).