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 2944

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1924 Registrar [illegible]

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

106

26 February 1924

Arthur William Gillan
Florence Ethel Kearns

Arthur William Gillan
Florence Ethel Kearns
💍 1924/424

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

24
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

24 years
22 years

Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin

784

26 February 1924

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	106
Date of Notice	26 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur William Gillan	Florence Ethel Kearns
	💍 1924/424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	24 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin
Folio	784
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1924
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

107

26 February 1924

James Bryant
Olive Rebecca Ball

James Bryant
Olive Rebecca Ball
💍 1924/425

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

19
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
21 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

785

T. Bryant (Father)

26 February 1924

Registrar

No	107
Date of Notice	26 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bryant	Olive Rebecca Ball
	💍 1924/425
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	19	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	785
Consent	T. Bryant (Father)
Date of Certificate	26 February 1924
Officiating Minister	Registrar

108

26 February 1924

Edward Richard Quin
Hyacinth Lydia Aston

Edward Richard Quin
Hyacinth Lydia Aston
💍 1924/426

Widower (21:5:1919)
Spinster

Marble Bar Proprietor

35
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

35 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. Edward Holmes, 11 McGlashan Street, Caversham

786

J.L. Aston (Father)

26 February 1924

T.A. Pybus, Methodist

No	108
Date of Notice	26 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Richard Quin	Hyacinth Lydia Aston
	💍 1924/426
Condition	Widower (21:5:1919)	Spinster
Profession	Marble Bar Proprietor
Age	35	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	35 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Edward Holmes, 11 McGlashan Street, Caversham
Folio	786
Consent	J.L. Aston (Father)
Date of Certificate	26 February 1924
Officiating Minister	T.A. Pybus, Methodist

109

26 February 1924

David Andrew Young
Phyllis Isabel Bremner

David Andrew Young
Phyllis Isabel Bremner
💍 1924/427

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant and Solicitor
Law Clerk

25
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
4 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin

787

26 February 1924

R.A. Woodthorpe, Anglican

No	109
Date of Notice	26 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Andrew Young	Phyllis Isabel Bremner
	💍 1924/427
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant and Solicitor	Law Clerk
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	787
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1924
Officiating Minister	R.A. Woodthorpe, Anglican

110

27 February 1924

John Broderick
Fanny Louise Coughlan

John Broderick
Fanny Louise Coughlan
💍 1924/428

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 15/2/1924

Chauffeur

28
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
33 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

788

27 February 1924

Registrar

No	110
Date of Notice	27 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Broderick	Fanny Louise Coughlan
	💍 1924/428
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 15/2/1924
Profession	Chauffeur
Age	28	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	33 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	788
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1924
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).