Intentions to Marry, 1923 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840518, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1923g contains pages 2671-3084, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2737

District of Malvern Quarter ending 31 December 1923 Registrar A. Adittens

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

1 October 1923

Reginald Beaumont Stevens
Elizabeth Mary Bromley

Reginald Beaumont Stevens
Elizabeth Mary Bromley
💍 1923/7434

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraph lineman
Domestic duties

26
29

Sheffield
Sheffield

9 months
9 months

Church of England, Sheffield

9687

5 October 1923

Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

No	6
Date of Notice	1 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Beaumont Stevens	Elizabeth Mary Bromley
	💍 1923/7434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraph lineman	Domestic duties
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Sheffield	Sheffield
Length of Residence	9 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Sheffield
Folio	9687
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

16 October 1923

Frederick Ashley Hewson
Elizabeth Helen Gold

Frederick Ashley Atkinson
Elizabeth Helen Gold
💍 1923/7435

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
33

Kowai Bush
Kowai Bush

15 years
22 years

Residence of J. Gold, Kowai Bush

9688

16 October 1923

Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	16 October 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Ashley Hewson	Elizabeth Helen Gold
BDM Match (90%)	Frederick Ashley Atkinson	Elizabeth Helen Gold
	💍 1923/7435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	33
Dwelling Place	Kowai Bush	Kowai Bush
Length of Residence	15 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J. Gold, Kowai Bush
Folio	9688
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 October 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

10 December 1923

William Culbert Hewson
Agnes Ethel Gold

William Culbert Atkinson
Agnes Ethel Gold
💍 1923/7436

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

24
23

Springfield
Kowai Bush

12 years
10 years

Anglican Church, St. Peters, Springfield

9689

10 December 1923

Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

No	8
Date of Notice	10 December 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Culbert Hewson	Agnes Ethel Gold
BDM Match (90%)	William Culbert Atkinson	Agnes Ethel Gold
	💍 1923/7436
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Springfield	Kowai Bush
Length of Residence	12 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, St. Peters, Springfield
Folio	9689
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. L. Sparrow, Anglican

14 December 1923

Clarence Collin Humm
Alice Esther Shackleton

Clarence Collin Humm
Alice Esther Shackleton
💍 1923/7437

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

24
26

Waddington
Waddington

24 years
4 years

Methodist Church, Waddington

9690

14 December 1923

Rev. Belshaw, Methodist

No	9
Date of Notice	14 December 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Collin Humm	Alice Esther Shackleton
	💍 1923/7437
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Waddington	Waddington
Length of Residence	24 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Waddington
Folio	9690
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 December 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Belshaw, Methodist

19 December 1923

Leslie Butler Hewitt
Emily Reveley

Leslie Butler Hewitt
Emily Reveley
💍 1924/7935

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

26
22

Annat
Kimberley

26 years
22 years

Anglican Church, St. Andrews, Darfield

119

19 December 1923

Rev. C. H. Farrow, Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	19 December 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Butler Hewitt	Emily Reveley
	💍 1924/7935
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Annat	Kimberley
Length of Residence	26 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, St. Andrews, Darfield
Folio	119
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 December 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Farrow, Anglican

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).