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 3134

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1926

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

461

19 July 1926

John Burns
Ida Constance Mildred Palmer

John Burns
Ida Constance Mildred Palmer
💍 1926/5251

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
6 years

Baptist Church, Roslyn

6072

19 July 1926

P. A. Crampton, Baptist

No	461
Date of Notice	19 July 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Burns	Ida Constance Mildred Palmer
	💍 1926/5251
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Roslyn
Folio	6072
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1926
Officiating Minister	P. A. Crampton, Baptist

462

20 July 1926

Vernon Richard Pike
Una Mary Morrell

Vernon Richard Pike
Una Mary Morrell
💍 1926/5252

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

27
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

27 years
3 weeks

First Church, Dunedin

6073

20 July 1926

E. N. Merrington, Presbyterian

No	462
Date of Notice	20 July 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vernon Richard Pike	Una Mary Morrell
	💍 1926/5252
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	27 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	6073
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1926
Officiating Minister	E. N. Merrington, Presbyterian

463

21 July 1926

Henry Ernest Cooper Green
Margaret White

Henry Ernest Cooper Green
Margaret White
💍 1926/5253

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 30 June 1926

Gardener

40
31

Dunedin
Dunedin

40 years
31 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

6074

21 July 1926

Registrar

No	463
Date of Notice	21 July 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Ernest Cooper Green	Margaret White
	💍 1926/5253
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 30 June 1926
Profession	Gardener
Age	40	31
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	40 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	6074
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1926
Officiating Minister	Registrar

464

21 July 1926

Thomas Francis Williams (commonly known as Thomas Francis Smith)
Clara Irene West

Thomas Francis Smith
Clara Irene West
💍 1926/5254

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

20
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

Life
Life

Knox Church, Dunedin

6075

T. Smith (Guardian), W.H. West (Father)

21 July 1926

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	464
Date of Notice	21 July 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Francis Williams (commonly known as Thomas Francis Smith)	Clara Irene West
BDM Match (66%)	Thomas Francis Smith	Clara Irene West
	💍 1926/5254
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	6075
Consent	T. Smith (Guardian), W.H. West (Father)
Date of Certificate	21 July 1926
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, Presbyterian

465

21 July 1926

James Arthur Adam
Grace Reliance Park

James Arthur Adam
Grace Reliance Park
💍 1926/6365

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

38
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
23 years

Residence of Professor J. Park, 23 Arawa Street, Anderson's Bay

6076

21 July 1926

D. Dutton, Presbyterian

No	465
Date of Notice	21 July 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Arthur Adam	Grace Reliance Park
	💍 1926/6365
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	38	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Professor J. Park, 23 Arawa Street, Anderson's Bay
Folio	6076
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1926
Officiating Minister	D. Dutton, 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).