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 2564

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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

350

22 June 1914

Robert George Fergusson
Helen Burns

Robert George Fergusson
Helen Burns
💍 1914/3089

Bachelor
Spinster

machinist

22
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

11 years
19 years

House of the Rev. E. H. Hobday, 59 Town Belt, Roslyn

6837

22 June 1914

E. H. Hobday

No	350
Date of Notice	22 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert George Fergusson	Helen Burns
	💍 1914/3089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	machinist
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	11 years	19 years
Marriage Place	House of the Rev. E. H. Hobday, 59 Town Belt, Roslyn
Folio	6837
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1914
Officiating Minister	E. H. Hobday

351

23 June 1914

Alexander Henry Ponton Peat
Beatrice Helen Ferguson

Alexander Henry Ponton Peat
Beatrice Helen Ferguson
💍 1914/8939

Bachelor
Spinster

blacksmith

29
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

29 years
3 days

Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin

4001

23 June 1914

W. Walker

No	351
Date of Notice	23 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Henry Ponton Peat	Beatrice Helen Ferguson
	💍 1914/8939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	blacksmith
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	29 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin
Folio	4001
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1914
Officiating Minister	W. Walker

352

23 June 1914

George Stephenson
Jessie Jane Sinclair Isbister

George Stephenson
Jessie Jane Sinclair Isbirten
💍 1914/3018

George Stephenson
Ada Maude Baxter
💍 1915/9384

Bachelor
Spinster

labourer

22
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

22 years
22 years

House of the Rev. R. Fairmaid, 33 Young Street, St Kilda

6777

23 June 1914

R. Fairmaid

No	352
Date of Notice	23 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stephenson	Jessie Jane Sinclair Isbister
BDM Match (97%)	George Stephenson	Jessie Jane Sinclair Isbirten
	💍 1914/3018
BDM Match (62%)	George Stephenson	Ada Maude Baxter
	💍 1915/9384
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	labourer
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	House of the Rev. R. Fairmaid, 33 Young Street, St Kilda
Folio	6777
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1914
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid

353

24 June 1914

Johannes Cornoldus Kroon
Margaret Longmuir Henderson

Johannes Cornoldus Kroon
Margaret Longmuir Henderson
💍 1914/8960

Bachelor
Spinster

pastrycook

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
23 years

House of Mr A. Henderson, 945 Cumberland Street, Dunedin

4006

24 June 1914

C. Duncan

No	353
Date of Notice	24 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Johannes Cornoldus Kroon	Margaret Longmuir Henderson
	💍 1914/8960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	pastrycook
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr A. Henderson, 945 Cumberland Street, Dunedin
Folio	4006
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1914
Officiating Minister	C. Duncan

354

24 June 1914

William Booth Bailey
Violet Pauline Wiig

William Booth Bailey
Violet Pauline Wiig
💍 1914/8957

Bachelor
Spinster

fisherman

25
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

House of the Rev. W. A. Hay, 169 York Place, Dunedin

4003

Matthew Erickson Wiig, father

24 June 1914

W. A. Hay

No	354
Date of Notice	24 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Booth Bailey	Violet Pauline Wiig
	💍 1914/8957
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	fisherman
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	House of the Rev. W. A. Hay, 169 York Place, Dunedin
Folio	4003
Consent	Matthew Erickson Wiig, father
Date of Certificate	24 June 1914
Officiating Minister	W. A. Hay

355

24 June 1914

James McCambridge
Annie Butler

James McCambridge
Annie Butler
💍 1914/8958

Bachelor
Spinster

runholder

45
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

4004

24 June 1914

J. Coffey

No	355
Date of Notice	24 June 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McCambridge	Annie Butler
	💍 1914/8958
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	runholder
Age	45	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	4004
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 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).