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 2376

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1917 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

264

25 July 1917

Edward Dillon
Jessie Anne Flett

Edward Dillon
Jessie Anne Flett
💍 1917/4114

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
32

Otama
Portobello

25 years
1 week

Registrar's Office Dunedin

3411

25 July 1917

H Maxwell

No	264
Date of Notice	25 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Dillon	Jessie Anne Flett
	💍 1917/4114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Otama	Portobello
Length of Residence	25 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Dunedin
Folio	3411
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1917
Officiating Minister	H Maxwell

265

25 July 1917

Archibald Robertson Gillan
Elizabeth Violet Skene Morris

Archibald Robertson Gillan
Elizabeth Violet Skene Morris
💍 1917/4115

Bachelor
Spinster

Attendant
Nurse

28
23

Anderson's Bay
Anderson's Bay

1 week
6 months

Waratah Tea Rooms 63 George Street Dunedin

3412

25 July 1917

Rev G McDonald

No	265
Date of Notice	25 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Robertson Gillan	Elizabeth Violet Skene Morris
	💍 1917/4115
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Attendant	Nurse
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Anderson's Bay	Anderson's Bay
Length of Residence	1 week	6 months
Marriage Place	Waratah Tea Rooms 63 George Street Dunedin
Folio	3412
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev G McDonald

266

27 July 1917

Matthew Stoddart Brown
Isabella Samson

Matthew Stoddart Brown
Isabella Samson
💍 1917/4525

Widower 23.1.08
Spinster

Barrister and Solicitor

54
33

Wellington
Dunedin

3 days
33 years

St. John's Church Wellington

3724

27 July 1917

Rev J Gibb

No	266
Date of Notice	27 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Stoddart Brown	Isabella Samson
	💍 1917/4525
Condition	Widower 23.1.08	Spinster
Profession	Barrister and Solicitor
Age	54	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	33 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Wellington
Folio	3724
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev J Gibb

267

28 July 1917

Harold Able Thompson
Elsie Robinson

Harold Abel Thompson
Elsie Robinson
💍 1917/4116

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

26
21

Green Island
Green Island

7 years
2 weeks

House of A G Thompson Green Island

3413

28 July 1917

Rev J Kilpatrick

No	267
Date of Notice	28 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Able Thompson	Elsie Robinson
BDM Match (95%)	Harold Abel Thompson	Elsie Robinson
	💍 1917/4116
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Green Island
Length of Residence	7 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	House of A G Thompson Green Island
Folio	3413
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev J Kilpatrick

268

30 July 1917

Alexander George Forbes
Margaret Robins a Wallace Downie

Alexander George Forbes
Margaret Robina Wallace Downie
💍 1917/4117

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

32
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 years
8 years

Presbyterian Church Highgate Roslyn

3414

30 July 1917

Rev W G Dixon

No	268
Date of Notice	30 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander George Forbes	Margaret Robins a Wallace Downie
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander George Forbes	Margaret Robina Wallace Downie
	💍 1917/4117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Highgate Roslyn
Folio	3414
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev W G Dixon

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).