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 2513

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

26 January 1914

Percy Barnes Foote
Annie Bella Rennie

Percy Barnes Foote
Annie Bella Rennie
💍 1914/8032

Bachelor
Spinster

accountant

23
21

Dunedin
St Kilda

8 years
6 years

In the house of Mr A. Rennie, 25 Queens Drive, St Kilda

1546

26 January 1914

R. S. Allan

No	37
Date of Notice	26 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Barnes Foote	Annie Bella Rennie
	💍 1914/8032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	accountant
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St Kilda
Length of Residence	8 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr A. Rennie, 25 Queens Drive, St Kilda
Folio	1546
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1914
Officiating Minister	R. S. Allan

26 January 1914

William Goldsmith Jones
Edith Mary Lewington

William Goldsmith Jones
Edith Mary Lewington
💍 1914/8067

Bachelor
Spinster

civil engineer

36
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
2 months

In St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin

1558

26 January 1914

H. G. Gould

No	38
Date of Notice	26 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Goldsmith Jones	Edith Mary Lewington
	💍 1914/8067
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	civil engineer
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	In St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1558
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1914
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gould

27 January 1914

James John Clarke
Anorah Fitzgerald

James John Clarke
Anorah Fitzgerald
💍 1914/8022

Bachelor
Spinster

slater

31
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

16 months
1 year

In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

1537

27 January 1914

D. Buckley

No	39
Date of Notice	27 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James John Clarke	Anorah Fitzgerald
	💍 1914/8022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	slater
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 months	1 year
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1537
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1914
Officiating Minister	D. Buckley

27 January 1914

Neil McDonald
Mary Ann Barrie

Neil McDonald
Mary Ann Barrie
💍 1914/8027

Bachelor
Spinster

gardener

32
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
3 weeks

In Knox Church Manse, Dunedin

1542

27 January 1914

R. E. Davies

No	40
Date of Notice	27 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neil McDonald	Mary Ann Barrie
	💍 1914/8027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	gardener
Age	32	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	In Knox Church Manse, Dunedin
Folio	1542
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1914
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies

27 January 1914

Walter Munn Carslaw
Sarah Biddiscombe Buff

Walter Munn Carslaw
Sarah Biddiscombe Cuff
💍 1914/8021

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

30
31

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 months
5 years

In the house of Miss J. Buff, 36 Melbourne Street, South Dunedin

1536

27 January 1914

J. C. Gellie

No	41
Date of Notice	27 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Munn Carslaw	Sarah Biddiscombe Buff
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Munn Carslaw	Sarah Biddiscombe Cuff
	💍 1914/8021
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 months	5 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Miss J. Buff, 36 Melbourne Street, South Dunedin
Folio	1536
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1914
Officiating Minister	J. C. Gellie

28 January 1914

Gordon Griffiths
Alice Maude Atkinson

Gordon Griffiths
Alice Maude Atkinson
💍 1914/8028

Bachelor
Spinster

draper

22
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 months
9 months

In the First Church, Dunedin

1543

28 January 1914

G. H. Balfour

No	42
Date of Notice	28 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Griffiths	Alice Maude Atkinson
	💍 1914/8028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	draper
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 months	9 months
Marriage Place	In the First Church, Dunedin
Folio	1543
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1914
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour

29 January 1914

James Milne
Hannah Lynch

James Milne
Hannah Lynch
💍 1914/8035

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

33
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 year
6 months

In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

1549

29 January 1914

J. Coffey

No	43
Date of Notice	29 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Milne	Hannah Lynch
	💍 1914/8035
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	6 months
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1549
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1914
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey

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).