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 2523

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

107

2 March 1914

Harry Wimpenny
Isabella Peterson

Harry Wimpenny
Isabella Peterson
💍 1914/8127

Bachelor
Spinster

engineer

36
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

35 years
26 years

In the Wesley Methodist Church Cargill Road South Dunedin

1692

2 March 1914

F. T. Read

No	107
Date of Notice	2 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Wimpenny	Isabella Peterson
	💍 1914/8127
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	engineer
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	35 years	26 years
Marriage Place	In the Wesley Methodist Church Cargill Road South Dunedin
Folio	1692
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1914
Officiating Minister	F. T. Read

108

5 March 1914

Oswell George Miller
Mary Elizabeth Jessie Barron

Oswell George Miller
Mary Elizabeth Jessie Barron
💍 1914/8131

Bachelor
Spinster

signwriter

26
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 years
11 years

In the Presbyterian Church Anderson's Bay

1695

5 March 1914

A. Cameron

No	108
Date of Notice	5 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oswell George Miller	Mary Elizabeth Jessie Barron
	💍 1914/8131
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	signwriter
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 years	11 years
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Church Anderson's Bay
Folio	1695
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1914
Officiating Minister	A. Cameron

109

9 March 1914

Henry Pocock
Hilda May Pearson

Henry Pocock
Hilda May Pearson
💍 1914/8273

Bachelor
Spinster

farmer

27
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
2 months

In the house of Mr W. Robertson 15 Hanover Street Dunedin

1889

9 March 1914

E. A. Axelsen

No	109
Date of Notice	9 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Pocock	Hilda May Pearson
	💍 1914/8273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farmer
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	2 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr W. Robertson 15 Hanover Street Dunedin
Folio	1889
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1914
Officiating Minister	E. A. Axelsen

110

9 March 1914

Robert Alexander Duthie
Agnes Alexandrina Stewart

Robert Alexander Duthie
Agnes Alexandrina Stewart
💍 1914/8164

Bachelor
Spinster

accountant

34
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

34 years
34 years

In the house of W. A. Stewart 26 Duke Street Dunedin

1706

9 March 1914

R. E. Davies

No	110
Date of Notice	9 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Alexander Duthie	Agnes Alexandrina Stewart
	💍 1914/8164
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	accountant
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	34 years	34 years
Marriage Place	In the house of W. A. Stewart 26 Duke Street Dunedin
Folio	1706
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1914
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies

111

10 March 1914

David Sutherland Columb
Ellen Rose Hall

David Sutherland Columb
Ellen Rose Hall
💍 1914/8134

Bachelor
Spinster

insurance clerk

33
36

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
36 years

In St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin

1698

10 March 1914

W. Corcoran

No	111
Date of Notice	10 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Sutherland Columb	Ellen Rose Hall
	💍 1914/8134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	insurance clerk
Age	33	36
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	36 years
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	1698
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. Corcoran

112

10 March 1914

David Renfrew White
Alice Logan van Someren Campbell

David Renfrew White
Alice Logan van Someren Campbell
💍 1914/563

Bachelor
Spinster

student

23
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
9 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

230

10 March 1914

W. E. Gladstone

No	112
Date of Notice	10 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Renfrew White	Alice Logan van Someren Campbell
	💍 1914/563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	student
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	9 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	230
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. E. Gladstone

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).