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 553

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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

532

8 October 1913

Bertram Leather
Annie Elizabeth Wood

Bertram Leather
Annie Elizabeth Wood
💍 1913/6884

Widower
Spinster

fruit farmer

33
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
18 months

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/6596

8 October 1913

H. Maxwell

No	532
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertram Leather	Annie Elizabeth Wood
	💍 1913/6884
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	fruit farmer
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	18 months
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/6596
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

533

8 October 1913

Clement Reid Carey
Florence Elizabeth Islip

Clement Reid Carey
Florence Elizabeth Islip
💍 1913/6885

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

28
21

Dunedin
Mornington

2 years
6 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/6597

8 October 1913

H. Maxwell

No	533
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clement Reid Carey	Florence Elizabeth Islip
	💍 1913/6885
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Mornington
Length of Residence	2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/6597
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

534

8 October 1913

Thomas Kirk
Jessie Hewitt

Thomas Kirk
Jessie Hewitt
💍 1913/6886

Bachelor
Widow

mason

50
53

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 years
20 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/6598

8 October 1913

H. Maxwell

No	534
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Kirk	Jessie Hewitt
	💍 1913/6886
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	mason
Age	50	53
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 years	20 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/6598
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

535

8 October 1913

George Gourley
Vere Cameron Duff

George Gourley
Vere Cameron Duff
💍 1913/8177

Bachelor
Spinster

dairyman

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
23 years

In the Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

7919

8 October 1913

R. Fairmaid

No	535
Date of Notice	8 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Gourley	Vere Cameron Duff
	💍 1913/8177
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	dairyman
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	7919
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 October 1913
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid

536

9 October 1913

Sydney Alfred Smith
Martha Wall Smith

Sydney Alfred Smith
Martha Wall
💍 1913/8484

Bachelor
Spinster

indent agent

37
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 weeks
34 years

In the house of Mary Wall 65 Heriot Row Dunedin

8299

9 October 1913

C. J. Collins

No	536
Date of Notice	9 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Alfred Smith	Martha Wall Smith
BDM Match (82%)	Sydney Alfred Smith	Martha Wall
	💍 1913/8484
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	indent agent
Age	37	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 weeks	34 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mary Wall 65 Heriot Row Dunedin
Folio	8299
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1913
Officiating Minister	C. J. Collins

537

11 October 1913

Joseph David Clyde
Mabel Louisa Strong

Joseph David Clyde
Mabel Louisa Strong
💍 1913/8200

Bachelor
Spinster

commercial traveller

26
26

Roslyn
Roslyn

26 years
10 years

In the Methodist Church Main West Taieri Road Roslyn

7946

11 October 1913

J. J. Pinfold

No	537
Date of Notice	11 October 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph David Clyde	Mabel Louisa Strong
	💍 1913/8200
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	commercial traveller
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Roslyn	Roslyn
Length of Residence	26 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In the Methodist Church Main West Taieri Road Roslyn
Folio	7946
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 October 1913
Officiating Minister	J. J. Pinfold

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).