Intentions to Marry, 1919 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840486, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1919 is bound in seven volumes (a to g) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1919f contains pages 2521-2942, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2531

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar P. J. Ecleden

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

7/19

6 May 1919

David Welsh
Agnes Maude Lewis

David Welsh
Agnes Maude Lewis
💍 1919/3931

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic Duties

29
29

Brookside
Killinchy

18 years
13 years

Methodist Church Leeston

3843

6 May 1919

Rev W. Laycock, Methodist

No	7/19
Date of Notice	6 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Welsh	Agnes Maude Lewis
	💍 1919/3931
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Brookside	Killinchy
Length of Residence	18 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Leeston
Folio	3843
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Laycock, Methodist

8/19

12 May 1919

James McVlay
Annie Stapleton

James McCloy
Annie Stapleton
💍 1919/3932

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

33
28

Methven
Doyleston

3 days
28 years

Catholic Church Leeston

3844

14 May 1919

Rev T. Creed, Roman Catholic

No	8/19
Date of Notice	12 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McVlay	Annie Stapleton
BDM Match (92%)	James McCloy	Annie Stapleton
	💍 1919/3932
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Methven	Doyleston
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church Leeston
Folio	3844
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev T. Creed, Roman Catholic

9/19

20 May 1919

Francis Irvine Norquay
Sarah Agnes Chappell

Francis Irvine Norquay
Sarah Agnes Chappell
💍 1919/3934

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic Duties

27
24

Killinchy
Killinchy

7 years
24 years

Presbyterian Church Leeston

3845

20 May 1919

Rev E. W. Walker, Presbyterian

No	9/19
Date of Notice	20 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Irvine Norquay	Sarah Agnes Chappell
	💍 1919/3934
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Killinchy	Killinchy
Length of Residence	7 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Leeston
Folio	3845
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev E. W. Walker, Presbyterian

10/19

30 May 1919

Thomas Dixon
Grace Lilian Winchester

Thomas Dixon
Grace Lillian Winchester
💍 1919/3935

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
19

Lakeside
Lakeside

32 years
19 years

Presbyterian Church Southbridge

3846

A. Winchester, Father

30 May 1919

Rev T. G. Butler, Presbyterian

No	10/19
Date of Notice	30 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Dixon	Grace Lilian Winchester
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Dixon	Grace Lillian Winchester
	💍 1919/3935
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Lakeside	Lakeside
Length of Residence	32 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Southbridge
Folio	3846
Consent	A. Winchester, Father
Date of Certificate	30 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev T. G. Butler, Presbyterian

11/19

30 May 1919

Thomas Campbell McLachlan
Teresa Eva May Alexander

Thomas Campbell McLachlan
Teresa Eva May Alexander
💍 1919/3936

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

26
25

Doyleston
Lakeside

26 years
25 years

Dwelling of W. J. Alexander Lakeside

3847

30 May 1919

Rev T. G. Butler, Presbyterian

No	11/19
Date of Notice	30 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Campbell McLachlan	Teresa Eva May Alexander
	💍 1919/3936
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Doyleston	Lakeside
Length of Residence	26 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of W. J. Alexander Lakeside
Folio	3847
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev T. G. Butler, 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).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

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).