Intentions to Marry, 1924 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840526, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1924 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.

1924g contains pages 2647-3074, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2931

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1924 Registrar C. H. Bennett

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

24 January 1924

William Thomas Suddens
Helen Douglas Stirling Bishop

William Thomas Suddens
Helen Douglas Stirling Bishop
💍 1924/8121

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

36
46

Dunedin
Dunedin

15 years
40 years

Residence of Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, 149 Tennyson Street, Dunedin

720

24 January 1924

Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

No	41
Date of Notice	24 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Suddens	Helen Douglas Stirling Bishop
	💍 1924/8121
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	36	46
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	15 years	40 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, 149 Tennyson Street, Dunedin
Folio	720
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, Methodist

24 January 1924

Edward Douglas Duthie
Eveline Margaret Black

Edward Douglas Duthie
Eveline Margaret Black
💍 1924/8122

Bachelor
Spinster

Hardware Merchant

28
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
26 years

Presbyterian Church, Queen's Drive, Musselburgh, Dunedin

721

24 January 1924

R. S. Allan, Presbyterian

No	42
Date of Notice	24 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Douglas Duthie	Eveline Margaret Black
	💍 1924/8122
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hardware Merchant
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Queen's Drive, Musselburgh, Dunedin
Folio	721
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1924
Officiating Minister	R. S. Allan, Presbyterian

25 January 1924

William John Harkness
Christina Margaret Hewlett

William John Harkness
Christina Margaret Hewlett
💍 1924/8123

Widower
Widow

Threshing Mill Owner

34
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

722

25 January 1924

Registrar

No	43
Date of Notice	25 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Harkness	Christina Margaret Hewlett
	💍 1924/8123
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Threshing Mill Owner
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	722
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1924
Officiating Minister	Registrar

25 January 1924

James Gordon Campbell
Isobel Clover Park

James Gordon Campbell
Isobel Clover Park
💍 1924/8124

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 months
10 months

Knox Church, Dunedin

723

T. Park (Father)

25 January 1924

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	44
Date of Notice	25 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gordon Campbell	Isobel Clover Park
	💍 1924/8124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 months	10 months
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	723
Consent	T. Park (Father)
Date of Certificate	25 January 1924
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, Presbyterian

25 January 1924

Francis Pitts
Margaret Mackintosh

Francis Pitts
Margaret Mackintosh
💍 1924/8479

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

45
32

Portobello
Portobello

2 1/2 years
16 months

Residence of Mrs. Grigg, 26 Stanley Street, Mornington

724

25 January 1924

W. Trotter, Presbyterian

No	45
Date of Notice	25 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Pitts	Margaret Mackintosh
	💍 1924/8479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	45	32
Dwelling Place	Portobello	Portobello
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	16 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Grigg, 26 Stanley Street, Mornington
Folio	724
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1924
Officiating Minister	W. Trotter, 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).