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 2524

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

113

11 March 1914

Herbert Temple Bryant
Martha Glass

Herbert Temple Bryant
Martha Glass
💍 1914/8132

Bachelor
Spinster

stock agent

32
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of W. R. C. Potter, 3 Fortuna Street, North East Valley

1696

11 March 1914

A. Finlayson

No	113
Date of Notice	11 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Temple Bryant	Martha Glass
	💍 1914/8132
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	stock agent
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of W. R. C. Potter, 3 Fortuna Street, North East Valley
Folio	1696
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1914
Officiating Minister	A. Finlayson

114

11 March 1914

Frank Sydney Wilkins
Mary Rebecca Greer

Frank Sydney Wilkins
Mary Rebecca Greer
💍 1914/8135

Bachelor
Spinster

clothier

25
19

Balclutha
Dunedin

25 years
2 weeks

In the Primitive Methodist Church, Cargill Road, South Dunedin

1699

John Greer, father

11 March 1914

W. Greenslade

No	114
Date of Notice	11 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Sydney Wilkins	Mary Rebecca Greer
	💍 1914/8135
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	clothier
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Balclutha	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	In the Primitive Methodist Church, Cargill Road, South Dunedin
Folio	1699
Consent	John Greer, father
Date of Certificate	11 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. Greenslade

115

12 March 1914

Richard Thompson Simpson
Rose Sophia Smith

Richard Thompson Simpson
Rose Sophia Smith
💍 1914/564

Bachelor
Spinster

woolclasser

26
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
7 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

231

12 March 1914

W. E. Gladstone

No	115
Date of Notice	12 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Thompson Simpson	Rose Sophia Smith
	💍 1914/564
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	woolclasser
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	7 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	231
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. E. Gladstone

116

12 March 1914

John Robert Ferguson
Mabel Alice Armishaw

John Robert Ferguson
Mabel Alice Armishaw
💍 1914/8165

Bachelor
Spinster

fishmonger

20
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
18 years

In the house of Mr. J. Armishaw, 105 Athol Place, Dunedin

1707

Arabella Ferguson, mother; Cameron Troupe Armishaw, father

12 March 1914

R. E. Davies

No	116
Date of Notice	12 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robert Ferguson	Mabel Alice Armishaw
	💍 1914/8165
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	fishmonger
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	18 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr. J. Armishaw, 105 Athol Place, Dunedin
Folio	1707
Consent	Arabella Ferguson, mother; Cameron Troupe Armishaw, father
Date of Certificate	12 March 1914
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies

117

13 March 1914

Archibald Watson Wilson
Ruby Florence Tuffley

Archibald Watson Wilson
Ruby Florence Tuffley
💍 1914/565

Bachelor
Spinster

blacksmith

27
19

West Harbour
West Harbour

5 days
1 month

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

232

Thomas Tuffley, father

13 March 1914

W. E. Gladstone

No	117
Date of Notice	13 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Watson Wilson	Ruby Florence Tuffley
	💍 1914/565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	blacksmith
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	West Harbour	West Harbour
Length of Residence	5 days	1 month
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	232
Consent	Thomas Tuffley, father
Date of Certificate	13 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. E. Gladstone

118

14 March 1914

Charles Vincent Hill
Lena Monica Collins

Charles Vincent Hill
Lena Monica Collins
💍 1914/8144

Bachelor
Spinster

railway employee

22
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
5 years

In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

1701

14 March 1914

W. Corcoran

No	118
Date of Notice	14 March 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Vincent Hill	Lena Monica Collins
	💍 1914/8144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	railway employee
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	5 years
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1701
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1914
Officiating Minister	W. Corcoran

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).