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 2326

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar H. 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

12 February 1918

David Alexander Govan
May Winifred Harvey

David Alexander Govan
May Winifred Harvey
💍 1918/399

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee

23
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church Green Island

757

Joseph Harvey (Father)

12 February 1918

J. Kilpatrick Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	12 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alexander Govan	May Winifred Harvey
	💍 1918/399
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Green Island
Folio	757
Consent	Joseph Harvey (Father)
Date of Certificate	12 February 1918
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick Presbyterian

13 February 1918

James Nelson Lorimer
Elizabeth Mary Pinkerton

James Nelson Lorimer
Elizabeth Mary Pinkerton
💍 1918/400

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

43
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
8 months

Pro. Cathedral Stuart Street Dunedin

758

13 February 1918

E.R. Nevill Church of England

No	37
Date of Notice	13 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Nelson Lorimer	Elizabeth Mary Pinkerton
	💍 1918/400
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	43	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	8 months
Marriage Place	Pro. Cathedral Stuart Street Dunedin
Folio	758
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1918
Officiating Minister	E.R. Nevill Church of England

14 February 1918

Montague William John Whittle
Emma Jane Allen

Montague William John Whittle
Emma Jane Allen
💍 1918/401

Bachelor
Spinster

Steward

22
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
2 weeks

Office of Registrar Dunedin

759

14 February 1918

H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

No	38
Date of Notice	14 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Montague William John Whittle	Emma Jane Allen
	💍 1918/401
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Steward
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar Dunedin
Folio	759
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1918
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell Acting Registrar

14 February 1918

Frederick James Gent
Joan Sinclair Sutherland

Fredrick James Gent
Joan Sinclair Sutherland
💍 1918/378

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

41
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
4 days

Knox Church Manse Dunedin

760

14 February 1918

R.E. Davies Presbyterian

No	39
Date of Notice	14 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick James Gent	Joan Sinclair Sutherland
BDM Match (98%)	Fredrick James Gent	Joan Sinclair Sutherland
	💍 1918/378
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	41	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Knox Church Manse Dunedin
Folio	760
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1918
Officiating Minister	R.E. Davies Presbyterian

15 February 1918

William Brown
Dolly Elizabeth Ann Ferrier

William Brown
Dolly Elizabeth Ann Ferrier
💍 1918/379

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

33
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church North East Valley

761

15 February 1918

R.E. Evans Presbyterian

No	40
Date of Notice	15 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brown	Dolly Elizabeth Ann Ferrier
	💍 1918/379
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church North East Valley
Folio	761
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 February 1918
Officiating Minister	R.E. Evans 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).