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 471

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

3 February 1913

William Hubert Naylor
Annie Urquhart Naylor

William Herbert Naylor
Annie Urquhart
💍 1913/2521

Bachelor
Spinster

carpenter
dressmaker

28
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
26 years

In the Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin

13/2090

3 February 1913

R. Fairmaid

No	56
Date of Notice	3 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hubert Naylor	Annie Urquhart Naylor
BDM Match (79%)	William Herbert Naylor	Annie Urquhart
	💍 1913/2521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	carpenter	dressmaker
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	26 years
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin
Folio	13/2090
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1913
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid

3 February 1913

William Williams Seyars
Minnie Elizabeth Seyars

William Williams
Minnie Elizabeth Seyars
💍 1913/2144

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

26
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
4 years

In the First Church, Dunedin

13/1626

3 February 1913

G. H. Balfour

No	57
Date of Notice	3 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Williams Seyars	Minnie Elizabeth Seyars
BDM Match (85%)	William Williams	Minnie Elizabeth Seyars
	💍 1913/2144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	4 years
Marriage Place	In the First Church, Dunedin
Folio	13/1626
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1913
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour

3 February 1913

Patrick Joseph Jennessey
Violet Louisa Butcher

Patrick Joseph Fennessey
Violet Louisa Butcher
💍 1913/2059

Bachelor
Spinster

railway employe
tailoress

27
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
4 years

In St. Patrick's Basilica, South Dunedin

13/1623

3 February 1913

J. P. Delany

No	58
Date of Notice	3 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Joseph Jennessey	Violet Louisa Butcher
BDM Match (98%)	Patrick Joseph Fennessey	Violet Louisa Butcher
	💍 1913/2059
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	railway employe	tailoress
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	4 years
Marriage Place	In St. Patrick's Basilica, South Dunedin
Folio	13/1623
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1913
Officiating Minister	J. P. Delany

3 February 1913

Joseph Mahalm Robertson
Annie Robertson

Joseph Mahalm
Annie Robertson
💍 1913/2520

Bachelor
Spinster

butcher
saleswoman

26
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 weeks
1 year

In the house of Mrs. M. Robertson, 21 Helena Street, Dunedin

13/2089

3 February 1913

R. Fairmaid

No	59
Date of Notice	3 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Mahalm Robertson	Annie Robertson
BDM Match (78%)	Joseph Mahalm	Annie Robertson
	💍 1913/2520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	butcher	saleswoman
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 year
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs. M. Robertson, 21 Helena Street, Dunedin
Folio	13/2089
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1913
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid

4 February 1913

William James Connolly
Mary Josephine Duggan

William James Connolly
Mary Josephine Duggan
💍 1913/2153

Bachelor
Spinster

runholder

32
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In St. Joseph's Cathedral Vestry, Dunedin

13/1643

4 February 1913

W. Corcoran

No	60
Date of Notice	4 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Connolly	Mary Josephine Duggan
	💍 1913/2153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	runholder
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In St. Joseph's Cathedral Vestry, Dunedin
Folio	13/1643
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1913
Officiating Minister	W. Corcoran

4 February 1913

Thomas Stevenson
Minnie Morrison

Thomas Stevenson
Minnie Morrison
💍 1913/2578

Bachelor
Spinster

tailor

30
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
4 months

In the house of Mrs. Ellen Paxton, 5/11 Anderson's Bay Road, Dunedin

13/2122

4 February 1913

J. C. Gellie

No	61
Date of Notice	4 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Stevenson	Minnie Morrison
	💍 1913/2578
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	tailor
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	4 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs. Ellen Paxton, 5/11 Anderson's Bay Road, Dunedin
Folio	13/2122
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1913
Officiating Minister	J. C. Gellie

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).