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 2508

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

7 January 1914

Hilton Cleveland Guy Hawkins
Hilda Henrietta Schlaadt

Hilton Clereland Guy Hawkins
Hilda Henrietta Schlaadt
💍 1914/7949

Bachelor
Spinster

shepherd

24
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
29 years

In St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin

1441

7 January 1914

H. G. Gould

No	7
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hilton Cleveland Guy Hawkins	Hilda Henrietta Schlaadt
BDM Match (98%)	Hilton Clereland Guy Hawkins	Hilda Henrietta Schlaadt
	💍 1914/7949
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	shepherd
Age	24	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	29 years
Marriage Place	In St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	1441
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gould

7 January 1914

John Gibson Grant
Margaret Lamb Clark

John Gibson Grant
Margaret Lamb Clark
💍 1914/525

Bachelor
Spinster

butcher

24
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
6 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

216

7 January 1914

H. Maxwell

No	8
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gibson Grant	Margaret Lamb Clark
	💍 1914/525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	butcher
Age	24	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	216
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell

7 January 1914

Benjamin Hudson
Loie May Nelson

Benjamin Hudson
Loie May Nelson
💍 1914/7954

Bachelor
Spinster

actor

30
17

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of the Rev. P. W. Fairclough 103 York Place Dunedin

1446

Mary Nelson mother

7 January 1914

P. W. Fairclough

No	9
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Hudson	Loie May Nelson
	💍 1914/7954
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	actor
Age	30	17
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. P. W. Fairclough 103 York Place Dunedin
Folio	1446
Consent	Mary Nelson mother
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	P. W. Fairclough

7 January 1914

James Campbell Smith
Nellie Clark

James Campbell Smith
Nellie Clark
💍 1914/7961

Bachelor
Spinster

butcher

24
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 1/2 years
10 years

In St Andrew's Church Dunedin

1452

7 January 1914

S. R. Orr

No	10
Date of Notice	7 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Campbell Smith	Nellie Clark
	💍 1914/7961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	butcher
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In St Andrew's Church Dunedin
Folio	1452
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1914
Officiating Minister	S. R. Orr

8 January 1914

James Foster
Jessie Donaldson

James Foster
Jessie Donaldson
💍 1914/7958

Bachelor
Spinster

caretaker

39
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 years
2 weeks

In the house of Mr J. Rider 73 Russell Street Dunedin

1449

8 January 1914

P. W. Fairclough

No	11
Date of Notice	8 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Foster	Jessie Donaldson
	💍 1914/7958
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	caretaker
Age	39	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr J. Rider 73 Russell Street Dunedin
Folio	1449
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1914
Officiating Minister	P. W. Fairclough

10 January 1914

Charles Swinson Hope
Mary McMullan

Charles Swinson Hope
Mary McMullan
💍 1914/526

Widower
Widow

chauffeur

43
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 years
4 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

217

10 January 1914

H. Maxwell

No	12
Date of Notice	10 January 1914
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Swinson Hope	Mary McMullan
	💍 1914/526
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	chauffeur
Age	43	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	217
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 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).