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 2330

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar 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

4 March 1918

John William Pearson
Gladys Evelyn May Parkin

John William Pearson
Gladys Evelyn May Parkin
💍 1918/413

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

28
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
21 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

779

4 March 1918

A.R. Fitchett, Church of England

No	56
Date of Notice	4 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Pearson	Gladys Evelyn May Parkin
	💍 1918/413
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	21 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	779
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1918
Officiating Minister	A.R. Fitchett, Church of England

5 March 1918

Alec Lindsay Muir
Margaret Eleanor Coats

Alec Lindsay Muir
Margaret Eleanor Coats
💍 1918/420

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
19 years

House of Mrs. E.J. Coats 54 Maclaggan Street Dunedin

778

Elizabeth Jane Coats (Mother)

5 March 1918

G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

No	57
Date of Notice	5 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alec Lindsay Muir	Margaret Eleanor Coats
	💍 1918/420
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. E.J. Coats 54 Maclaggan Street Dunedin
Folio	778
Consent	Elizabeth Jane Coats (Mother)
Date of Certificate	5 March 1918
Officiating Minister	G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

6 March 1918

Joseph Robert Miller
Alice Diana Vernon

Joseph Robert Miller
Alice Diana Vernon
💍 1918/421

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

25
16

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 months
10 years

St. Pauls pro. Cathedral Dunedin

779

Emily Jane Vernon (Mother)

6 March 1918

E.R. Nevill, Church of England

No	58
Date of Notice	6 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Robert Miller	Alice Diana Vernon
	💍 1918/421
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	25	16
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 months	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls pro. Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	779
Consent	Emily Jane Vernon (Mother)
Date of Certificate	6 March 1918
Officiating Minister	E.R. Nevill, Church of England

7 March 1918

Emil Hugo William Lippert
Mary Ann Elizabeth Jeffs

Emil Hugo William Lippert
Mary Anne Elizabeth Jeffs
💍 1918/422

Bachelor
Spinster

Confectioner

20
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 years
19 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

780

George Henry Jeffs (Father)

21 March 1918

A.R. Fitchett, Church of England

No	59
Date of Notice	7 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Emil Hugo William Lippert	Mary Ann Elizabeth Jeffs
BDM Match (98%)	Emil Hugo William Lippert	Mary Anne Elizabeth Jeffs
	💍 1918/422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 years	19 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	780
Consent	George Henry Jeffs (Father)
Date of Certificate	21 March 1918
Officiating Minister	A.R. Fitchett, Church of England

7 March 1918

William Arnold Sinclair
Emily Brook

William Arnold Sinclair
Emily Brook
💍 1918/423

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

21
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

19 years
17 years

Knox Church Dunedin

781

7 March 1918

R.E. Davies., Presbyterian

No	60
Date of Notice	7 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arnold Sinclair	Emily Brook
	💍 1918/423
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	19 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	781
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1918
Officiating Minister	R.E. Davies., Presbyterian

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).