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 2938

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1924 Registrar A. E. Kennedy

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

12 February 1924

Frederick Ernest Occleshaw
Jessie Sheldon Smellie

Frederick Ernest Occleshaw
Jessie Sheldon Smellie
💍 1924/8307

Bachelor
Spinster

Technical Chemist

31
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
23 years

Strand Salon, 553 George Street, Dunedin

755

12 February 1924

J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

No	76
Date of Notice	12 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Ernest Occleshaw	Jessie Sheldon Smellie
	💍 1924/8307
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Technical Chemist
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Strand Salon, 553 George Street, Dunedin
Folio	755
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1924
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

12 February 1924

Arthur Lawrence Newman
Janet Hamilton

Arthur Lawrence Newman
Janet Hamilton
💍 1924/8308

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 29:8:1919

Engineer

31
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 days
14 days

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

756

12 February 1924

Registrar

No	77
Date of Notice	12 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lawrence Newman	Janet Hamilton
	💍 1924/8308
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 29:8:1919
Profession	Engineer
Age	31	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	756
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1924
Officiating Minister	Registrar

12 February 1924

Walter Edward Andrews
Mary Julia Hodgson

Walter Edward Andrews
Mary Julia Hodgson
💍 1924/8428

Bachelor
Spinster

Secretary

26
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
8 years

St. Peters Church, Caversham

757

12 February 1924

G.N. Turner, Anglican

No	78
Date of Notice	12 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Edward Andrews	Mary Julia Hodgson
	💍 1924/8428
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Secretary
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Caversham
Folio	757
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1924
Officiating Minister	G.N. Turner, Anglican

13 February 1924

Ernest Claud Beck Willis
Isabella Janet Matheson

Ernest Claud Beck Willis
Isabella Janet Matheson
💍 1924/8406

Bachelor
Spinster

Gentlemans Outfitter

42
41

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 1/2 years
41 years

Residence of Mr. J. Nicholson, 89 Warrender Street, Dunedin

758

13 February 1924

R.E. Davies, Presbyterian

No	79
Date of Notice	13 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Claud Beck Willis	Isabella Janet Matheson
	💍 1924/8406
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gentlemans Outfitter
Age	42	41
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	41 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Nicholson, 89 Warrender Street, Dunedin
Folio	758
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1924
Officiating Minister	R.E. Davies, Presbyterian

14 February 1924

Frank Cochrane
Mary Robertson

Frank Cochrane
Mary Robertson
💍 1924/8407

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
21

Dunedin
Oamaru

3 days
21 years

Residence of Rev. R.E. Davies, 5 Dunblane Street, Roslyn

759

14 February 1924

R.E. Davies, Presbyterian

No	80
Date of Notice	14 February 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Cochrane	Mary Robertson
	💍 1924/8407
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. R.E. Davies, 5 Dunblane Street, Roslyn
Folio	759
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1924
Officiating Minister	R.E. Davies, 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).