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 2955

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar A. E. Reynolds

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

31 January 1923

Cecil Parker
Margaret Adelaide Hames

Cecil Parker
Margaret Adelaide Hames
💍 1923/1801

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. W. Parker, Norwood Street, North East Valley, Dunedin

1289

M. Hames (mother)

31 January 1923

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

No	41
Date of Notice	31 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Parker	Margaret Adelaide Hames
	💍 1923/1801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Parker, Norwood Street, North East Valley, Dunedin
Folio	1289
Consent	M. Hames (mother)
Date of Certificate	31 January 1923
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

1 February 1923

Alexander Finlayson
Margaret Black Wallace

Alexander Finlayson
Margaret Black Wallace
💍 1923/1802

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

31
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
20 years

Knox Church, Dunedin

1290

1 February 1923

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	42
Date of Notice	1 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Finlayson	Margaret Black Wallace
	💍 1923/1802
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	1290
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1923
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, Presbyterian

1 February 1923

Leonard Roy Quennell
Agnes Allison Horn

Leonard Roy Quennell
Agnes Allison Horn
💍 1923/1803

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

25
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
2 years

Methodist Church, Mornington

1291

1 February 1923

R. Raine, Methodist

No	43
Date of Notice	1 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Roy Quennell	Agnes Allison Horn
	💍 1923/1803
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Mornington
Folio	1291
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1923
Officiating Minister	R. Raine, Methodist

2 February 1923

Peter George Petersen
Jane Cleveland

Peter George Petersen
Jane Cleveland
💍 1923/1804

Widower 18/9/1918
Widow 14/12/1920

Marine Dealer

50
58

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
58 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1292

2 February 1923

Registrar

No	44
Date of Notice	2 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter George Petersen	Jane Cleveland
	💍 1923/1804
Condition	Widower 18/9/1918	Widow 14/12/1920
Profession	Marine Dealer
Age	50	58
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	58 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1292
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Registrar

3 February 1923

Percival Ernest James
Lilian May Fenwick

Percival Ernest James
Lilian May Fenwick
💍 1923/1805

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk in Holy Orders

40
42

Dunedin
Dunedin

40 years
42 years

St. Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin

1293

3 February 1923

I. Richards, Anglican

No	45
Date of Notice	3 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Ernest James	Lilian May Fenwick
	💍 1923/1805
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk in Holy Orders
Age	40	42
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	40 years	42 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1293
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1923
Officiating Minister	I. Richards, 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).