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 538

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

449

1 August 1913

Percival Brookes Witt
Agnes Ormiston Graham

Percival Brookes Witt
Agnes Ormiston Graham
💍 1913/6164

Bachelor
Spinster

commercial traveller

27
27

Dunedin
Invercargill

5 years
27 years

In the house of Mr John Graham, 111 Annan Street, Invercargill

13/5845

1 August 1913

J. W. Shaw.

No	449
Date of Notice	1 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Brookes Witt	Agnes Ormiston Graham
	💍 1913/6164
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	commercial traveller
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	27 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr John Graham, 111 Annan Street, Invercargill
Folio	13/5845
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1913
Officiating Minister	J. W. Shaw.

450

1 August 1913

Alfred John Couchman
Hedwig Helena Friedlander

Alfred John Couchman
Hedwig Helena Friedlander
💍 1913/8708

Bachelor
Spinster

accountant

29
35

St Kilda
St Kilda

2 years
2 years

In St Peter's Church, Caversham

8528

1 August 1913

E. D. Evans.

No	450
Date of Notice	1 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred John Couchman	Hedwig Helena Friedlander
	💍 1913/8708
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	accountant
Age	29	35
Dwelling Place	St Kilda	St Kilda
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	In St Peter's Church, Caversham
Folio	8528
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1913
Officiating Minister	E. D. Evans.

451

2 August 1913

William John McIntyre
Louisa Lilias Doull

William John McIntyre
Louisa Lilias Doull
💍 1913/6460

Bachelor
Spinster

blacksmith

20
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
18 years

In the house of Mr W. R. Doull, 15 Bathgate Road, South Dunedin

13/6971

W. R. Doull, father; Mary Elizabeth McIntyre, mother

2 August 1913

D. Dutton

No	451
Date of Notice	2 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John McIntyre	Louisa Lilias Doull
	💍 1913/6460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	blacksmith
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	18 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr W. R. Doull, 15 Bathgate Road, South Dunedin
Folio	13/6971
Consent	W. R. Doull, father; Mary Elizabeth McIntyre, mother
Date of Certificate	2 August 1913
Officiating Minister	D. Dutton

452

4 August 1913

Herbert John Morgan
Martha Nunn

Herbert John Morgan
Martha Dunn
💍 1913/5017

Bachelor
Spinster

asphalter

27
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

27 years
20 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

13/4694

4 August 1913

H. Maxwell.

No	452
Date of Notice	4 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Morgan	Martha Nunn
BDM Match (95%)	Herbert John Morgan	Martha Dunn
	💍 1913/5017
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	asphalter
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	27 years	20 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	13/4694
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell.

453

5 August 1913

George Rutherford Blyth
Ellen Eliza Knowles

George Rutherford Blyth
Ellen Eliza Knowles
💍 1913/6119

Bachelor
Spinster

tailor
tailoress

27
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
4 weeks

In the Early Settlers Hall, Cumberland Street, Dunedin

13/5766

5 August 1913

G. H. Balfour

No	453
Date of Notice	5 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Rutherford Blyth	Ellen Eliza Knowles
	💍 1913/6119
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	tailor	tailoress
Age	27	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	4 weeks
Marriage Place	In the Early Settlers Hall, Cumberland Street, Dunedin
Folio	13/5766
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1913
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour

454

6 August 1913

John Fletcher
Eveline May Buckley

John Fletcher
Eveline May Buckley
💍 1913/8837

Bachelor
Spinster

railway employe

38
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In Knox Church Manse, Dunedin

8341

6 August 1913

R. E. Davies.

No	454
Date of Notice	6 August 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fletcher	Eveline May Buckley
	💍 1913/8837
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	railway employe
Age	38	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In Knox Church Manse, Dunedin
Folio	8341
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1913
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies.

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).