Intentions to Marry, 1923 Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840519, 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.

1923e contains pages 3085-3502, covering districts from Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Page 3200

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar N. Stark

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

20 February 1923

Thomas Mackie
Edith Bopping

Thomas Mackie
Edith Copping
💍 1923/2724

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic

37
40

Oamaru
Oamaru

35 years
40 years

Residence of J.R. Smith, Torridge Street, Oamaru

2427

20 February 1923

Rev. J. N. Griffin

No	16
Date of Notice	20 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Mackie	Edith Bopping
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Mackie	Edith Copping
	💍 1923/2724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic
Age	37	40
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	35 years	40 years
Marriage Place	Residence of J.R. Smith, Torridge Street, Oamaru
Folio	2427
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. N. Griffin

20 February 1923

George Erdman
Agnes Elizabeth Lundbag

George Erdman
Agness Elizabeth Lundberg
💍 1923/2731

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Mill Hand

24
16

Oamaru
Oamaru

1 year
16 years

St. Pauls Church, Reed Street, Oamaru

2428

Lucy Sophia Lundbag, mother

20 February 1923

Rev. A. J. Hunter, Presbyterian

No	17
Date of Notice	20 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Erdman	Agnes Elizabeth Lundbag
BDM Match (94%)	George Erdman	Agness Elizabeth Lundberg
	💍 1923/2731
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Mill Hand
Age	24	16
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	1 year	16 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio	2428
Consent	Lucy Sophia Lundbag, mother
Date of Certificate	20 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Hunter, Presbyterian

26 February 1923

James Dunne
Jeannie Cynthia Brown

James Dunne
Jeannie Cynthia Brown
💍 1923/2732

Bachelor
Spinster

Quarryman
Domestic

22
21

Awamoa, Oamaru
Oamaru

3 years
9 years

Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed Street, Oamaru

2429

26 February 1923

Rev. R. Graham, Roman Catholic

No	18
Date of Notice	26 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Dunne	Jeannie Cynthia Brown
	💍 1923/2732
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Quarryman	Domestic
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Awamoa, Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio	2429
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Graham, Roman Catholic

5 March 1923

Charles Henry Burrell
Mary Kathleen McMahon

Charles Henry Burrell
Mary Kathleen McMahon
💍 1923/3937

Bachelor
Spinster

Woolclasser
Tailoress

30
29

Timaru
Oamaru

4 days

Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed Street, Oamaru

5 March 1923

Rev. A. Fenelon, Roman Catholic

No	19
Date of Notice	5 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Burrell	Mary Kathleen McMahon
	💍 1923/3937
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Woolclasser	Tailoress
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence		4 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Fenelon, Roman Catholic

8 March 1923

Henry Kapwell
Margaret Johnston Taylor

Henry Maxwell
Margaret Johnston Taylor
💍 1923/2733

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Shop Assistant

35
30

Dunedin
Oamaru

30 years

St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru

2430

8 March 1923

Ven. Archdeacon Russell, Anglican

No	20
Date of Notice	8 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Kapwell	Margaret Johnston Taylor
BDM Match (92%)	Henry Maxwell	Margaret Johnston Taylor
	💍 1923/2733
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Shop Assistant
Age	35	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Oamaru
Length of Residence		30 years
Marriage Place	St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru
Folio	2430
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Ven. Archdeacon Russell, 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).