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 487

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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

154

12 March 1913

Hubert Alan Rose
Patricia Burgoyne Laing

Herbert Alan Rose
Patricia Burgoyne Laing
💍 1913/2068

Bachelor
Spinster

barrister

26
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 days
23 years

In All Saints Church Dunedin

13/1609

12 March 1913

C.R. Allen

No	154
Date of Notice	12 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Alan Rose	Patricia Burgoyne Laing
BDM Match (94%)	Herbert Alan Rose	Patricia Burgoyne Laing
	💍 1913/2068
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	barrister
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 days	23 years
Marriage Place	In All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	13/1609
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1913
Officiating Minister	C.R. Allen

155

13 March 1913

Arthur Jardine Lockie
Eliza Lyla Lawson

Arthur Jardine Lockie
Eliza Lyla Lawson
💍 1913/2066

Bachelor
Spinster

clerk

36
36

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
2 years

In the house of the Rev. W. Saunders 68 Albany Street Dunedin

13/1607

13 March 1913

W. Saunders.

No	155
Date of Notice	13 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Jardine Lockie	Eliza Lyla Lawson
	💍 1913/2066
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	clerk
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. W. Saunders 68 Albany Street Dunedin
Folio	13/1607
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1913
Officiating Minister	W. Saunders.

156

13 March 1913

Angus Murray MacIvor
Margaret MacLeod

Angus Murray MacIvor
Margaret MacLeod
💍 1913/2742

Bachelor
Spinster

storeman

37
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
5 years

In the Waratah Tea Rooms George Street Dunedin

13/1712

13 March 1913

H. B. Gray

No	156
Date of Notice	13 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Angus Murray MacIvor	Margaret MacLeod
	💍 1913/2742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	storeman
Age	37	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	In the Waratah Tea Rooms George Street Dunedin
Folio	13/1712
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1913
Officiating Minister	H. B. Gray

157

13 March 1913

William Thomas Freeman
Agnes Evaline Hunt

William Thomas Freeman
Agnes Evaline Hunt
💍 1913/2743

Bachelor
Spinster

metal worker

27
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

27 years
23 years

In the house of W. F. Hunt 15 Mechanic Street North East Valley

13/1713

13 March 1913

H. B. Gray.

No	157
Date of Notice	13 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Freeman	Agnes Evaline Hunt
	💍 1913/2743
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	metal worker
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	27 years	23 years
Marriage Place	In the house of W. F. Hunt 15 Mechanic Street North East Valley
Folio	13/1713
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1913
Officiating Minister	H. B. Gray.

158

13 March 1913

Percival Mason
Margaret Johanna Smith Matheson

Percival Mason
Margaret Johanna Smith Matheson
💍 1913/2211

Bachelor
Spinster

groom

33
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

30 years
21 years

In the house of Mr. Donald Matheson 120 Albany Street Dunedin

13/1700

13 March 1913

G. Heighway

No	158
Date of Notice	13 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Mason	Margaret Johanna Smith Matheson
	💍 1913/2211
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	groom
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	30 years	21 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. Donald Matheson 120 Albany Street Dunedin
Folio	13/1700
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1913
Officiating Minister	G. Heighway

159

13 March 1913

George Ferguson
Margaret Blaikie Dunn

George Ferguson
Margaret Blaikie Dunn
💍 1913/2745

Bachelor
Spinster

iron turner
tailoress

28
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
25 years

In the Presbyterian Church North East Valley

13/1715

13 March 1913

H. B. Gray

No	159
Date of Notice	13 March 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ferguson	Margaret Blaikie Dunn
	💍 1913/2745
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	iron turner	tailoress
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	25 years
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Church North East Valley
Folio	13/1715
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1913
Officiating Minister	H. B. Gray

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).