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 3006

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

166

27 March 1925

Murdoch Beaton McKenzie
Jessie Lumley Bell

Murdoch Beaton McKenzie
Jessie Lumley Bell
💍 1925/884

Bachelor
Spinster

Postmaster

37
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

37 years
26 years

St. Marys Church, Mornington

1407

27 March 1925

S.J. Cooper, Anglican

No	166
Date of Notice	27 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Murdoch Beaton McKenzie	Jessie Lumley Bell
	💍 1925/884
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postmaster
Age	37	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	37 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Marys Church, Mornington
Folio	1407
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1925
Officiating Minister	S.J. Cooper, Anglican

167

27 March 1925

John Henry Edward Chase
Elsie Margaret Holt

John Henry Edward Chase
Elsie Margaret Holt
💍 1925/885

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

22
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

22 years
24 years

St. Peters Church, Caversham

1408

27 March 1925

W.H. Roberts, Anglican

No	167
Date of Notice	27 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Edward Chase	Elsie Margaret Holt
	💍 1925/885
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	22 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Caversham
Folio	1408
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1925
Officiating Minister	W.H. Roberts, Anglican

168

31 March 1925

Ernest Nicholas Sudden
Ruby Milne

Ernest Nicholas Sudden
Ruby Milne
💍 1925/862

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

24
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 months
2 years

Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin

1409

31 March 1925

D. Heggie, Presbyterian

No	168
Date of Notice	31 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Nicholas Sudden	Ruby Milne
	💍 1925/862
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin
Folio	1409
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1925
Officiating Minister	D. Heggie, Presbyterian

169

31 March 1925

Stuart Whitworth Russell
Margaret Murphy

Stuart Whitworth Russell
Margaret Murphy
💍 1925/863

Bachelor
Widow

Hotel Employee

35
40

Dunedin
Dunedin

17 years
40 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

1410

31 March 1925

B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

No	169
Date of Notice	31 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stuart Whitworth Russell	Margaret Murphy
	💍 1925/863
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Hotel Employee
Age	35	40
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	17 years	40 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1410
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1925
Officiating Minister	B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

170

31 March 1925

Sydney Grainger Hall
Christina McCombie

Sydney Grainger Hall
Christina McCombie
💍 1925/864

Bachelor
Spinster

Sergeant of Police

38
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

16 years
7 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1411

31 March 1925

Registrar

No	170
Date of Notice	31 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Grainger Hall	Christina McCombie
	💍 1925/864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sergeant of Police
Age	38	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1411
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1925
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).