Intentions to Marry, 1926 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840542, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1926 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.

1926g contains pages 2769-3198, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2801

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar J. H. Chesson

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

8 January 1926

John Stanley Allen
Mary Marguerite Ryan

John Stanley Allen
Mary Marguerite Ryan
💍 1926/3352

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman
Domestic Duties

27
23

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

1 year
1 year

Roman Catholic Church, Kaiapoi

2588

8 January 1926

Rev. Father Patrick O'Doherty, Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	8 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stanley Allen	Mary Marguerite Ryan
	💍 1926/3352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman	Domestic Duties
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Kaiapoi
Folio	2588
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Patrick O'Doherty, Roman Catholic

12 January 1926

Steve Ryan
Hilda Mary Weller

Steve Ryan
Hilda Mary Weller
💍 1926/3353

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman
Domestic Duties

22
19

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

4 days
2 years

Roman Catholic Church, Kaiapoi

2589

George Daniel Etherington, Guardian

12 January 1926

Rev. Father Patrick O'Doherty, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	12 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Steve Ryan	Hilda Mary Weller
	💍 1926/3353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman	Domestic Duties
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	4 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Kaiapoi
Folio	2589
Consent	George Daniel Etherington, Guardian
Date of Certificate	12 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Patrick O'Doherty, Roman Catholic

2 February 1926

Gordon Alexander McGregor
Nicholas Eileen Stuart Palmer

Gordon Alexander McGregor
Nicholas Eileen Stuart Palmer
💍 1926/3354

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

26
23

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

26 years
5 years

Presbyterian Church, Kaiapoi

2590

2 February 1926

Rev. G. K. Aitken, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	2 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Alexander McGregor	Nicholas Eileen Stuart Palmer
	💍 1926/3354
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	26 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kaiapoi
Folio	2590
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Aitken, Presbyterian

4 February 1926

James Betker
Ruth Gwendoline Wylie

James Beker
Ruth Gwendoline Wylie
💍 1926/3356

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Domestic Duties

29
27

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

29 years
23 years

Methodist Church, Kaiapoi

2591

4 February 1926

Rev. W. G. Slade, Methodist

No	4
Date of Notice	4 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Betker	Ruth Gwendoline Wylie
BDM Match (96%)	James Beker	Ruth Gwendoline Wylie
	💍 1926/3356
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Domestic Duties
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	29 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Kaiapoi
Folio	2591
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. G. Slade, Methodist

22 February 1926

David Laurence Little
Ruby Emma Lord

David Laurence Little
Ruby Emma Lord
💍 1926/3357

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman New Zealand Railway
Domestic Duties

30
27

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

6 years
20 years

Church of England, Kaiapoi

2592

22 February 1926

Rev. J. T. Paddison, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	22 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Laurence Little	Ruby Emma Lord
	💍 1926/3357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman New Zealand Railway	Domestic Duties
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Kaiapoi
Folio	2592
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Paddison, Church of England

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).