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 465

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

13 January 1913

Edward Henry James Harris
Elizabeth Ramsden Harris

Edward Henry James
Elizabeth Ramsden Harris
💍 1913/2124

Bachelor
Spinster

stationer
tailoress

27
26

Dunedin
Caversham

18 years
26 years

In St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin

13/1589

13 January 1913

H. J. Gould

No	19
Date of Notice	13 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Henry James Harris	Elizabeth Ramsden Harris
BDM Match (86%)	Edward Henry James	Elizabeth Ramsden Harris
	💍 1913/2124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	stationer	tailoress
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Caversham
Length of Residence	18 years	26 years
Marriage Place	In St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	13/1589
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1913
Officiating Minister	H. J. Gould

13 January 1913

William Albert Rhodes
Agnes Susan Gillbee

William Albert Rhodes
Agnes Susan Gillbee
💍 1913/2167

Bachelor
Spinster

farmer

23
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
3 weeks

In St Martin's Church North East Valley

13/1633

Charles Gillbee, father

13 January 1913

W. H. Roberts

No	20
Date of Notice	13 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Albert Rhodes	Agnes Susan Gillbee
	💍 1913/2167
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farmer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	3 weeks
Marriage Place	In St Martin's Church North East Valley
Folio	13/1633
Consent	Charles Gillbee, father
Date of Certificate	13 January 1913
Officiating Minister	W. H. Roberts

15 January 1913

David William Houston
Martha Edith Schultz

David William Houston
Martha Edith Schultz
💍 1913/329

Bachelor
Spinster

butcher

22
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
3 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/2118

Charles Schultz, father

15 January 1913

H. Maxwell

No	21
Date of Notice	15 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David William Houston	Martha Edith Schultz
	💍 1913/329
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	butcher
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/2118
Consent	Charles Schultz, father
Date of Certificate	15 January 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

15 January 1913

John Bentley Sharp
Margaret Healy

John Bentley Sharp
Margaret Healy
💍 1913/330

Bachelor
Spinster

bootmaker

27
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

27 years
16 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/212

15 January 1913

H. Maxwell

No	22
Date of Notice	15 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bentley Sharp	Margaret Healy
	💍 1913/330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	bootmaker
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	27 years	16 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/212
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

15 January 1913

John William Whitehead Lunam
Jessie Campbell Crockett

John William Whitehead Lunam
Jessie Campbell Crockett
💍 1913/331

Bachelor
Spinster

blacksmith

23
22

Dunedin
Roslyn

10 years
16 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

13/213

15 January 1913

H. Maxwell

No	23
Date of Notice	15 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Whitehead Lunam	Jessie Campbell Crockett
	💍 1913/331
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	blacksmith
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Roslyn
Length of Residence	10 years	16 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	13/213
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1913
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

16 January 1913

George Francis Cornelius Smith
Isabella Mary Pickworth

George Francis Cornelius Smith
Isabella Mary Pickworth
💍 1913/2157

Bachelor
Spinster

bottler

20
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
3 months

In St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin

13/1646

Joseph Smith, father; James Pickworth, father

16 January 1913

D. P. Buckley

No	24
Date of Notice	16 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Francis Cornelius Smith	Isabella Mary Pickworth
	💍 1913/2157
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	bottler
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	3 months
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	13/1646
Consent	Joseph Smith, father; James Pickworth, father
Date of Certificate	16 January 1913
Officiating Minister	D. P. Buckley

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).