Intentions to Marry, 1918 Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840480, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1918 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.

1918f contains pages 2189-2777, covering districts from Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Page 2327

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar W. W. Marshall

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

16 February 1918

Charles Robert Gardner
Ellen Myall

Charles Robert Gardner
Ellen Myall
💍 1918/380

Widower May 1916
Widow 14/5/1917

Butcher

55
47

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 weeks
40 years

Office of Registrar Dunedin

762

16 February 1918

H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	16 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Robert Gardner	Ellen Myall
	💍 1918/380
Condition	Widower May 1916	Widow 14/5/1917
Profession	Butcher
Age	55	47
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 weeks	40 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar Dunedin
Folio	762
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1918
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

18 February 1918

Ernest Hector Cook
Bessie Spence

Ernest Hector Cook
Bessie Spence
💍 1918/381

Bachelor
Spinster

Pattern maker

28
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
22 years

House of Mr. T. Spence, 26 Cutten Street, South Dunedin

763

18 February 1918

R. Fairmaid Presbyterian

No	42
Date of Notice	18 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Hector Cook	Bessie Spence
	💍 1918/381
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pattern maker
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	22 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. T. Spence, 26 Cutten Street, South Dunedin
Folio	763
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1918
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid Presbyterian

19 February 1918

John Alexander Martin
Jane Torrance Nevill

John Alexander Martin
Jane Torrance Nevill
💍 1918/382

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

28
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Office of Registrar Dunedin

764

19 February 1918

H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

No	43
Date of Notice	19 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander Martin	Jane Torrance Nevill
	💍 1918/382
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar Dunedin
Folio	764
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1918
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

19 February 1918

David Ferguson
Myrtle Gladys Smart

David Ferguson
Myrtle Gladys Smart
💍 1918/383

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

35
26

Dunedin
St. Kilda

30 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

765

19 February 1918

R. Fairmaid Presbyterian

No	44
Date of Notice	19 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Ferguson	Myrtle Gladys Smart
	💍 1918/383
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	35	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St. Kilda
Length of Residence	30 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	765
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1918
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid Presbyterian

20 February 1918

Philip Thornicroft Middleditch
Lilian Margaret Green

Philip Thornicroft Middleditch
Lilian Margaret Green
💍 1918/384

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine engineer

25
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St. Matthews Church Dunedin

766

20 February 1918

W. Curzon-Siggers Church of England

No	45
Date of Notice	20 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Thornicroft Middleditch	Lilian Margaret Green
	💍 1918/384
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine engineer
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church Dunedin
Folio	766
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Curzon-Siggers Church of England

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).