Intentions to Marry, 1925 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840534, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1925 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.

1925g contains pages 2703-3132, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2881

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 1925 Registrar A. B. Huggins

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

164

10 December 1925

Cecil Valentine Harding
Dorothy Beatrice Ellery

Cecil Valentine Harding
Dorothy Beatrice Ellery
💍 1925/697

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

27
23

Timaru
Timaru

4 years
6 months

Methodist Church, Woodlands Street, Timaru

10216

10 December 1925

Rev. H. J. Odell, Methodist

No	164
Date of Notice	10 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Valentine Harding	Dorothy Beatrice Ellery
	💍 1925/697
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Woodlands Street, Timaru
Folio	10216
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Odell, Methodist

165

11 December 1925

Stephen George Smith
Dulcemona Maude Boulton

Stephen George Smith
Dulcemona Maude Boulton
💍 1925/698

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

24
18

Otago
Otago

Life
10 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages, Timaru

10217

Alfred Herbert Boulton, Father

11 December 1925

A. E. Reynolds, Registrar of Marriages

No	165
Date of Notice	11 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen George Smith	Dulcemona Maude Boulton
	💍 1925/698
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Otago	Otago
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
Folio	10217
Consent	Alfred Herbert Boulton, Father
Date of Certificate	11 December 1925
Officiating Minister	A. E. Reynolds, Registrar of Marriages

166

14 December 1925

Douglas Alexander Lawson
Amelia Winifred Anne Flanagan

Douglas Alexander Lawson
Amelia Winifred Anne Flanagan
💍 1925/699

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Music Teacher

27
24

Ashburton
Timaru

15 months
6 years

Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru

10218

14 December 1925

Rev. A. Begg, Presbyterian

No	166
Date of Notice	14 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Alexander Lawson	Amelia Winifred Anne Flanagan
	💍 1925/699
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Music Teacher
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Ashburton	Timaru
Length of Residence	15 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru
Folio	10218
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 December 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Begg, Presbyterian

167

15 December 1925

Herbert Stanley Ellis
Catherine Elizabeth Gow

Herbert Stanley Ellis
Catherine Elizabeth Gow
💍 1925/700

Bachelor
Widow (6.4.1920)

Traveller
Storekeeper

34
40

Timaru
Timaru

3 years
5 years

Residence of bride, 72 Elizabeth Street, Timaru

10219

15 December 1925

Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

No	167
Date of Notice	15 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Stanley Ellis	Catherine Elizabeth Gow
	💍 1925/700
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (6.4.1920)
Profession	Traveller	Storekeeper
Age	34	40
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of bride, 72 Elizabeth Street, Timaru
Folio	10219
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

168

15 December 1925

William Brady
Janet Hazel O'Connor

William Brady
Janet Hazel O'Connor
💍 1926/447

Widower (8.4.1923)
Spinster

Insurance Agent
Nurse

32
24

Hastings
Timaru

15 months
6 weeks

Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru

146

15 December 1925

Rev. A. Begg, Presbyterian

No	168
Date of Notice	15 December 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brady	Janet Hazel O'Connor
	💍 1926/447
Condition	Widower (8.4.1923)	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent	Nurse
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Timaru
Length of Residence	15 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru
Folio	146
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 December 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Begg, 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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).