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 3055

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar Registrar

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

11 February 1926

Frank Lockhart Barr
Lorna Marguerite Dickie Hopkinson commonly known as Lorna Marguerite Dickie Englefield

Frank Lockhart Barr
Lorna Marguerite Dickie Englefield
💍 1926/2852

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

32
30

Balclutha
Dunedin

2 months
3 years

Church, Queen's Drive, St. Kilda

1461

11 February 1926

R.S. Allan, Presbyterian

No	81
Date of Notice	11 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Lockhart Barr	Lorna Marguerite Dickie Hopkinson commonly known as Lorna Marguerite Dickie Englefield
BDM Match (70%)	Frank Lockhart Barr	Lorna Marguerite Dickie Englefield
	💍 1926/2852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Balclutha	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Church, Queen's Drive, St. Kilda
Folio	1461
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1926
Officiating Minister	R.S. Allan, Presbyterian

11 February 1926

Alfred Pearce
Annie McCabe

Alfred Pearce
Annie McCabe
💍 1926/1868

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

29
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
2 years

Methodist Parsonage, 467 Leith Street, Dunedin

1420

11 February 1926

E.O. Blamires, Methodist

No	82
Date of Notice	11 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Pearce	Annie McCabe
	💍 1926/1868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 467 Leith Street, Dunedin
Folio	1420
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1926
Officiating Minister	E.O. Blamires, Methodist

12 February 1926

Joseph Edward Galloway
Georgina Dunnett Jackson

Joseph Edward Galloway
Georgina Dunnett Jackson
💍 1926/2853

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist

29
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
7 years

Residence of Mr. J. Jackson, 240 Kaikorai Valley Road, Dunedin

1462

12 February 1926

D. J. Albert, Presbyterian

No	83
Date of Notice	12 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Edward Galloway	Georgina Dunnett Jackson
	💍 1926/2853
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Jackson, 240 Kaikorai Valley Road, Dunedin
Folio	1462
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1926
Officiating Minister	D. J. Albert, Presbyterian

12 February 1926

Walter Arthur Thompson
Violet Emily Trevathan

Walter Arthur Thompson
Violet Emily Trevathan
💍 1926/2854

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter

23
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
11 years

Presbyterian Manse, 518 Castle Street, Dunedin

1463

Isabel Trevathan (Mother)

12 February 1926

J.M. Simpson, Presbyterian

No	84
Date of Notice	12 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Arthur Thompson	Violet Emily Trevathan
	💍 1926/2854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 518 Castle Street, Dunedin
Folio	1463
Consent	Isabel Trevathan (Mother)
Date of Certificate	12 February 1926
Officiating Minister	J.M. Simpson, Presbyterian

12 February 1926

Thomas Bethridge Topp
Irene Valentina Bradford

Thomas Bethridge Topp
Irene Valentina Bradford
💍 1926/2855

Divorced, Decree Absolute 17 September 1925
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

47
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 weeks
10 weeks

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1464

12 February 1926

Registrar

No	85
Date of Notice	12 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Bethridge Topp	Irene Valentina Bradford
	💍 1926/2855
Condition	Divorced, Decree Absolute 17 September 1925	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	47	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 weeks	10 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1464
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1926
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).