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 2401

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1918 Registrar 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

397

22 November 1918

Major William Solloway Lane
Margaret Lillias Thomson Buchanan

William Solloway Gane
Margaret Lilias Thompson Buchanan
💍 1918/5502

Bachelor
Spinster

Master mariner

42
42

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 weeks
40 years

House of Mrs. M.O. Buchanan, 109 Albany Street, Dunedin.

5093

22 November 1918

A. North, Baptist.

No	397
Date of Notice	22 November 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Major William Solloway Lane	Margaret Lillias Thomson Buchanan
BDM Match (84%)	William Solloway Gane	Margaret Lilias Thompson Buchanan
	💍 1918/5502
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master mariner
Age	42	42
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 weeks	40 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. M.O. Buchanan, 109 Albany Street, Dunedin.
Folio	5093
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1918
Officiating Minister	A. North, Baptist.

398

26 November 1918

Peter Alexander Young
Catherine Agnes McDiarmid

Peter Alexander Young
Catherine Agnes McDiarmid
💍 1918/5503

Widower
Spinster

Superintendent Provodore

56
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
32 years

House of Mrs. J. Blaikie, 21 Elgin Road, Mornington.

5094

26 November 1918

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian.

No	398
Date of Notice	26 November 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Alexander Young	Catherine Agnes McDiarmid
	💍 1918/5503
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Superintendent Provodore
Age	56	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	32 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. J. Blaikie, 21 Elgin Road, Mornington.
Folio	5094
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1918
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian.

399

26 November 1918

Patrick Dillon
Nora Fennessy

Patrick Dillon
Nora Fennessy
💍 1918/5505

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

49
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
10 days

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.

5095

26 November 1918

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic.

No	399
Date of Notice	26 November 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Dillon	Nora Fennessy
	💍 1918/5505
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	49	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	10 days
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.
Folio	5095
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 November 1918
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic.

400

27 November 1918

Henry Waters
Helen Caskie

Henry Waters
Helen Caskie
💍 1918/6455

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

30
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
7 years

House of E. Greenslade, 56 Lawrence Street, Mornington.

6239

27 November 1918

W. Greenslade, Methodist.

No	400
Date of Notice	27 November 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Waters	Helen Caskie
	💍 1918/6455
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	House of E. Greenslade, 56 Lawrence Street, Mornington.
Folio	6239
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 November 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Greenslade, Methodist.

401

29 November 1918

Cyril Norman Brookes
Violet Jane Fox

Cyril Norman Brookes
Violet June Fox
💍 1918/5506

Bachelor
Spinster

Pattern-maker

24
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
22 years

Baptist Church, Caversham.

5096

29 November 1918

C. Dallaston, Baptist.

No	401
Date of Notice	29 November 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Norman Brookes	Violet Jane Fox
BDM Match (97%)	Cyril Norman Brookes	Violet June Fox
	💍 1918/5506
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pattern-maker
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Caversham.
Folio	5096
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 November 1918
Officiating Minister	C. Dallaston, Baptist.

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).