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 2911

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar A. B. Raymond

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

10 March 1926

Percival Charles Stevenson
Gretchen Margaret Bell

Percival Charles Stevenson
Gretchen Margaret Carl
💍 1926/1299

Bachelor
Spinster

Vulcaniser
Clerk

23
19

Timaru
Timaru

Life
10 years

Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru

2647

No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

25 March 1926

Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

No	21
Date of Notice	10 March 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Charles Stevenson	Gretchen Margaret Bell
BDM Match (93%)	Percival Charles Stevenson	Gretchen Margaret Carl
	💍 1926/1299
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Vulcaniser	Clerk
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru
Folio	2647
Consent	No person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

15 March 1926

David Thomas Baswell
Grace Alice Borry

David Thomas Caswell
Grace Alice Corry
💍 1926/1310

Bachelor
Spinster

Council Employee
Domestic Duties

26
21

Timaru
Timaru

3 years
11 years

Kensington Church of England, Timaru

2648

15 March 1926

Rev. E. A. Osmers, Anglican

No	22
Date of Notice	15 March 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Thomas Baswell	Grace Alice Borry
BDM Match (95%)	David Thomas Caswell	Grace Alice Corry
	💍 1926/1310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Council Employee	Domestic Duties
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Kensington Church of England, Timaru
Folio	2648
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. A. Osmers, Anglican

16 March 1926

Harry Gledhill
Margaret Taylor Bell

Bachelor
Spinster

Retired Butcher
Woollen Mill Employee

27
27

Timaru
Timaru

19 years
13 years

Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru

2649

16 March 1926

Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

No	23
Date of Notice	16 March 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Gledhill	Margaret Taylor Bell
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Retired Butcher	Woollen Mill Employee
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	19 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru
Folio	2649
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

17 March 1926

David Charles Clark
Iris Mona Knowles

David Charles Clark
Iris Mona Knowles
💍 1926/1318

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Manager
Clerk

29
29

The Hermitage, Mount Cook
Timaru

18 months
19 years

Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru

2650

17 March 1926

Rev. A. Begg, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	17 March 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Charles Clark	Iris Mona Knowles
	💍 1926/1318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Manager	Clerk
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	The Hermitage, Mount Cook	Timaru
Length of Residence	18 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Highfield, Timaru
Folio	2650
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 March 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Begg, Presbyterian

19 March 1926

John McDougall
Violet Waugh

John McDougall
Violet Waugh
💍 1926/1319

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner
Tailoress

29
26

Timaru
Elizabeth Street, Timaru

8 years
Life

Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru

2651

19 March 1926

Rev. P. G. Hughes, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	19 March 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McDougall	Violet Waugh
	💍 1926/1319
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner	Tailoress
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Elizabeth Street, Timaru
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Timaru
Folio	2651
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. G. Hughes, 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).