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 3060

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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

418

29 July 1925

William Richard St.Clair Coxon
Christina Winifred Hannan

William Richard St Clair Coxon
Christina Winifred Hannan
💍 1925/6491

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
2 years

St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin

6467

29 July 1925

J.P. Delany, Roman Catholic

No	418
Date of Notice	29 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Richard St.Clair Coxon	Christina Winifred Hannan
BDM Match (98%)	William Richard St Clair Coxon	Christina Winifred Hannan
	💍 1925/6491
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin
Folio	6467
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1925
Officiating Minister	J.P. Delany, Roman Catholic

419

29 July 1925

David Douglas Neilson
Winifred Jenkins

David Douglas Neilson
Winifred Jenkins
💍 1925/6406

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

26
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
23 years

Methodist Church, St. Clair

6358

29 July 1925

O.S. Pearn, Methodist

No	419
Date of Notice	29 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Douglas Neilson	Winifred Jenkins
	💍 1925/6406
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, St. Clair
Folio	6358
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1925
Officiating Minister	O.S. Pearn, Methodist

420

29 July 1925

William Lindsay Stables
Alice Noeline Poole

William Lindsay Stables
Alice Noeline Poole
💍 1925/6407

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

21
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 years
19 years

Methodist Church, Maori Hill

6359

F.W. Poole (Father)

29 July 1925

F.E. Foot, Methodist

No	420
Date of Notice	29 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lindsay Stables	Alice Noeline Poole
	💍 1925/6407
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Maori Hill
Folio	6359
Consent	F.W. Poole (Father)
Date of Certificate	29 July 1925
Officiating Minister	F.E. Foot, Methodist

421

30 July 1925

William Marston
Lillian Irene Arthur

William Marston
Lillian Irene Arthur
💍 1925/6384

Bachelor
Spinster

French Polisher

32
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

30 years
10 years

Residence of Rev. C. Dallaston, 5 Knox Street, Dunedin

6360

30 July 1925

C. Dallaston, Baptist

No	421
Date of Notice	30 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Marston	Lillian Irene Arthur
	💍 1925/6384
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	French Polisher
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	30 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. C. Dallaston, 5 Knox Street, Dunedin
Folio	6360
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1925
Officiating Minister	C. Dallaston, Baptist

422

30 July 1925

John Henry Bell
Ethel Margaret Smith

John Henry Bell
Ethel Margaret Smith
💍 1925/6385

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

17 years
21 years

First Church, Dunedin

6361

30 July 1925

E.N. Merrington, Presbyterian

No	422
Date of Notice	30 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Bell	Ethel Margaret Smith
	💍 1925/6385
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	17 years	21 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	6361
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1925
Officiating Minister	E.N. Merrington, 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).