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 2999

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1925

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

131

13 March 1925

Alfred John Cecil Holden
Margaret Rose Walker

Alfred John Cecil Holden
Margaret Rose Walker
💍 1925/836

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

22
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
11 years

Residence of Mr. G.D. Walker, 7 Carlton Street, North East Valley

1375

G.D. Walker (father)

13 March 1925

S. Morris, Baptist

No	131
Date of Notice	13 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred John Cecil Holden	Margaret Rose Walker
	💍 1925/836
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G.D. Walker, 7 Carlton Street, North East Valley
Folio	1375
Consent	G.D. Walker (father)
Date of Certificate	13 March 1925
Officiating Minister	S. Morris, Baptist

132

13 March 1925

Henry Roberts
Bertha Moore

Henry Roberts
Bertha Moore
💍 1925/847

Widower
Widow

Pastrycook

53
55

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
13 years

Methodist Parsonage, 467 Leith Street, Dunedin

1376

13 March 1925

E.O. Blamires, Methodist

No	132
Date of Notice	13 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Roberts	Bertha Moore
	💍 1925/847
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Pastrycook
Age	53	55
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 467 Leith Street, Dunedin
Folio	1376
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1925
Officiating Minister	E.O. Blamires, Methodist

133

16 March 1925

Robert Gemmell Burnett Sinclair
Mura Isabella Reid

Robert Gemmell Burnett Sinclair
Mina Isabella Reid
💍 1925/854

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

28
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
25 years

First Church, Dunedin

1377

16 March 1925

E.N. Merrington, Presbyterian

No	133
Date of Notice	16 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gemmell Burnett Sinclair	Mura Isabella Reid
BDM Match (94%)	Robert Gemmell Burnett Sinclair	Mina Isabella Reid
	💍 1925/854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	1377
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1925
Officiating Minister	E.N. Merrington, Presbyterian

134

16 March 1925

Patrick Joseph Casserly
Lillias Helen Ward

Patrick Joseph Casserly
Lillias Helen Ward
💍 1925/1899

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

49
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
15 years

St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin

2598

16 March 1925

J.P. Delany, Roman Catholic

No	134
Date of Notice	16 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Joseph Casserly	Lillias Helen Ward
	💍 1925/1899
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	49	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin
Folio	2598
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1925
Officiating Minister	J.P. Delany, Roman Catholic

135

17 March 1925

Frank Lee
Tui Catherine Weatherston

Frank Lee
Tui Catherine Weatherston
💍 1925/855

Bachelor
Spinster

Shearer

22
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 months
4 years

First Church Manse, Dunedin

1378

17 March 1925

E.N. Merrington, Presbyterian

No	135
Date of Notice	17 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Lee	Tui Catherine Weatherston
	💍 1925/855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shearer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 months	4 years
Marriage Place	First Church Manse, Dunedin
Folio	1378
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 March 1925
Officiating Minister	E.N. Merrington, Presbyterian

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).

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).