Intentions to Marry, 1917 Rangiora to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840474, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1917 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1917f contains pages 2197-2786, covering districts from Rangiora to Chatham Islands

Page 2335

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar William Ewart Gladstone

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

19 February 1917

Lionel William Benjamin
Eveline Hilliard

Lionel William Benjamin
Eveline Hilliard
💍 1917/1630

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

23
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 years
24 years

Church of Christ North East Valley

786

19 February 1917

T. Arnold

No	54
Date of Notice	19 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel William Benjamin	Eveline Hilliard
	💍 1917/1630
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ North East Valley
Folio	786
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1917
Officiating Minister	T. Arnold

19 February 1917

John Calder
Esther Wray Pilkington

John Calder
Esther Wray Pilkington
💍 1917/2465

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

40
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
33 years

St. John's Church Roslyn

1630

19 February 1917

W.A.R. Fitchett

No	55
Date of Notice	19 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Calder	Esther Wray Pilkington
	💍 1917/2465
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	40	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	33 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Roslyn
Folio	1630
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W.A.R. Fitchett

19 February 1917

William James Head
Sarah Rhoda Dawson

William James Head
Sarah Rhoda Dawson
💍 1917/1631

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

34
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
6 months

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

787

19 February 1917

W.E. Gladstone

No	56
Date of Notice	19 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Head	Sarah Rhoda Dawson
	💍 1917/1631
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	787
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W.E. Gladstone

20 February 1917

Matthew Devlin
Margaret May Broad

Matthew Devlin
Margaret May Broad
💍 1917/1632

Bachelor
Spinster

Attendant

29
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

29 years
3 days

St. Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin

788

20 February 1917

J.J. O'Reilly

No	57
Date of Notice	20 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Devlin	Margaret May Broad
	💍 1917/1632
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Attendant
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	29 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	788
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1917
Officiating Minister	J.J. O'Reilly

21 February 1917

William Henry Causzar Birch
Dorothy Rutledge

William Henry Cauazar Birch
Dorothy Rutledge
💍 1917/1633

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

45
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 days
5 weeks

Presbyterian Church Highgate Roslyn

789

21 February 1917

W.G. Dixon

No	58
Date of Notice	21 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Causzar Birch	Dorothy Rutledge
BDM Match (98%)	William Henry Cauazar Birch	Dorothy Rutledge
	💍 1917/1633
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	45	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Highgate Roslyn
Folio	789
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1917
Officiating Minister	W.G. Dixon

21 February 1917

Henry Peter Johnson
Ellen Isabella Craig

Henry Peter Johnson
Ellen Isabella Craig
💍 1917/1634

Bachelor
Spinster

Fishmonger

29
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

29 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

790

21 February 1917

W. E. Gladstone

No	59
Date of Notice	21 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Peter Johnson	Ellen Isabella Craig
	💍 1917/1634
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fishmonger
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	29 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	790
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1917
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).