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 2348

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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

126

4 April 1917

Peter Hutton
Olive Catherine Wieck

Peter Hutton
Olive Catherine Wieck
💍 1917/2478

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Tailoress

21
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
21 years

House of G. H. Wieck, 82 Botting Street, North East Valley

1654

4 April 1917

Rev. G. Heighway

No	126
Date of Notice	4 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Hutton	Olive Catherine Wieck
	💍 1917/2478
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Tailoress
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	21 years
Marriage Place	House of G. H. Wieck, 82 Botting Street, North East Valley
Folio	1654
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Heighway

127

4 April 1917

Arthur Frank Wethey
Hazel Jessie Agnes Bell

Arthur Frank Wethey
Hazel Jessie Agnes Bell
💍 1917/2479

Bachelor
Spinster

Dental Mechanic

28
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 months
1 week

Presbyterian Church Anderson's Bay

1655

4 April 1917

Rev. A. Cameron

No	127
Date of Notice	4 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Frank Wethey	Hazel Jessie Agnes Bell
	💍 1917/2479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dental Mechanic
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Anderson's Bay
Folio	1655
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Cameron

128

4 April 1917

Francis Edward Frame
Ethel May Harland Clarke

Francis Edward Frame
Ethel May Harland Clarke
💍 1917/2480

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Officer

20
21

St Kilda
Dunedin

3 days
9 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

1656

Lena Oughton Frame (mother)

4 April 1917

Rev. A. R. Fitchett

No	128
Date of Notice	4 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Edward Frame	Ethel May Harland Clarke
	💍 1917/2480
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Officer
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	St Kilda	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	9 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	1656
Consent	Lena Oughton Frame (mother)
Date of Certificate	4 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. R. Fitchett

129

4 April 1917

Thomas Horace Fraser
Doris Mabel Pickett

Thomas Horace Fraser
Doris Mabel Pickett
💍 1917/608

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist
Typiste

21
17

Dunedin
Dunedin

22 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Dunedin

1657

James Pickett (Father)

4 April 1917

W E Gladstone Dep Registrar

No	129
Date of Notice	4 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Horace Fraser	Doris Mabel Pickett
	💍 1917/608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist	Typiste
Age	21	17
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	22 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Dunedin
Folio	1657
Consent	James Pickett (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 April 1917
Officiating Minister	W E Gladstone Dep Registrar

130

5 April 1917

Charles Copestake
Beatrice Mary High

Charles Copestake
Beatrice Mary High
💍 1917/2481

Bachelor
Spinster

Meat Inspector

29
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 weeks

Church of England Anderson's Bay

1658

5 April 1917

Rev. H. O. Fenton

No	130
Date of Notice	5 April 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Copestake	Beatrice Mary High
	💍 1917/2481
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Meat Inspector
Age	29	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England Anderson's Bay
Folio	1658
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. O. Fenton

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).