Intentions to Marry, 1914 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840456, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1914 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1914a), Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1914b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1914c).

Page 2509

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1914 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

10 January 1914

Darcy Baldick
Isabella Alison Burgess

Darcy Baldick
Isabella Alison Burgess
💍 1914/7957

Bachelor
Spinster

sheep-farmer
school-teacher

36
36

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 days
3 months

In the house of Mrs J. A. Burgess, 15 Littlebourne Road, Roslyn

1448

10 January 1914

A. H. Wallace

No	13
Date of Notice	10 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Darcy Baldick	Isabella Alison Burgess
	💍 1914/7957
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	sheep-farmer	school-teacher
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 days	3 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs J. A. Burgess, 15 Littlebourne Road, Roslyn
Folio	1448
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1914
Officiating Minister	A. H. Wallace

10 January 1914

William George Somerville Robertson
Annie Jane Dougharty

William George Somerville Robertson
Annie Jane Dougharty
💍 1914/8042

Bachelor
Spinster

painter

28
29

St Kilda
St Kilda

6 weeks
6 weeks

In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

1533

10 January 1914

D. Buckley

No	14
Date of Notice	10 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Somerville Robertson	Annie Jane Dougharty
	💍 1914/8042
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	painter
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	St Kilda	St Kilda
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1533
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1914
Officiating Minister	D. Buckley

12 January 1914

William Stewart Ferguson
Clara Charlotte Roach

William Stewart Feymon
Clara Charlotte Roach
💍 1914/7956

Bachelor
Spinster

clerk

30
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 days
26 years

In First Church, Dunedin

1447

12 January 1914

G. H. Balfour

No	15
Date of Notice	12 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stewart Ferguson	Clara Charlotte Roach
BDM Match (92%)	William Stewart Feymon	Clara Charlotte Roach
	💍 1914/7956
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	clerk
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 days	26 years
Marriage Place	In First Church, Dunedin
Folio	1447
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1914
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour

12 January 1914

Frank Burgess
Agnes Stuart

Frank Burgess
Agnes Stuart
💍 1914/527

Bachelor
Spinster

railway employee

25
25

Dunedin
Green Island

7 years
8 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

218

12 January 1914

H. Maxwell

No	16
Date of Notice	12 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Burgess	Agnes Stuart
	💍 1914/527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	railway employee
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Green Island
Length of Residence	7 years	8 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	218
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1914
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

12 January 1914

Stephen Macale
Elizabeth Graham

Stephen Macabe
Elizabeth Graham
💍 1914/8328

Bachelor
Spinster

farmer

25
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
5 years

In the Presbyterian Church, North East Valley

1946

12 January 1914

I. R. M. McIntyre

No	17
Date of Notice	12 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Macale	Elizabeth Graham
BDM Match (96%)	Stephen Macabe	Elizabeth Graham
	💍 1914/8328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farmer
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	5 years
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Church, North East Valley
Folio	1946
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1914
Officiating Minister	I. R. M. McIntyre

12 January 1914

Joseph Cecil Ashton
Agnes Grogan

Joseph Cecil Ashton
Agnes Grogan
💍 1914/528

Widower
Spinster

carter

39
42

Dunedin
Dunedin

11 years
30 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

219

12 January 1914

H. Maxwell

No	18
Date of Notice	12 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Cecil Ashton	Agnes Grogan
	💍 1914/528
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	carter
Age	39	42
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	11 years	30 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	219
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1914
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

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).