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 3018

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1923 Registrar C. J. Ronald

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

347

18 July 1923

Archibald Hamilton Rowan
Susannah Thornton

Archibald Hamilton Rowan
Susannah Thornton
💍 1923/4026

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

37
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
6 years

St. Johns Church, Roslyn

6171

18 July 1923

A. R. Fitchett, Anglican

No	347
Date of Notice	18 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Hamilton Rowan	Susannah Thornton
	💍 1923/4026
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	37	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Roslyn
Folio	6171
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1923
Officiating Minister	A. R. Fitchett, Anglican

348

19 July 1923

Ernest Sainsbury
Elizabeth Patterson

Ernest Sainsbury
Elizabeth Patterson
💍 1923/4027

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

32
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda, Dunedin

6172

19 July 1923

A. Wingfield, Anglican

No	348
Date of Notice	19 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Sainsbury	Elizabeth Patterson
	💍 1923/4027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda, Dunedin
Folio	6172
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1923
Officiating Minister	A. Wingfield, Anglican

349

19 July 1923

William Edward Joseph Simpson
Edith Joyce Williamson

William Joseph Edward Simpson
Edith Joyce Williamson
💍 1923/4028

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Baker

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
8 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

6173

19 July 1923

M. Spillane, Roman Catholic

No	349
Date of Notice	19 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Joseph Simpson	Edith Joyce Williamson
BDM Match (79%)	William Joseph Edward Simpson	Edith Joyce Williamson
	💍 1923/4028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Baker
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	6173
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1923
Officiating Minister	M. Spillane, Roman Catholic

350

20 July 1923

David King Taylor
Ruby Margaret Harwood

David King Taylor
Ruby Margaret Harwood
💍 1923/4029

Bachelor
Spinster

Paper Ruler

27
24

Green Island
Portobello

17 years
24 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin

6174

20 July 1923

H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

No	350
Date of Notice	20 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David King Taylor	Ruby Margaret Harwood
	💍 1923/4029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Paper Ruler
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Portobello
Length of Residence	17 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin
Folio	6174
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1923
Officiating Minister	H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

351

20 July 1923

Leonard John McLaughlin
Margaret Scott Anderson

Leonard John McLaughlin
Margaret Scott Anderson
💍 1923/4031

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

31
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
9 months

Residence of Mrs. J. McLaughlin, 564 Cumberland Street, Dunedin

6175

20 July 1923

A. W. Kinmont, Presbyterian

No	351
Date of Notice	20 July 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard John McLaughlin	Margaret Scott Anderson
	💍 1923/4031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. J. McLaughlin, 564 Cumberland Street, Dunedin
Folio	6175
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1923
Officiating Minister	A. W. Kinmont, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).