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 2787

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar H. Maxwell

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

9 January 1919

Edward Harrison
Margaret Thompson

Edward Harrison
Margaret Thompson
💍 1919/736

Edward Osborne Horner
Margaret Annie Thompson
💍 1919/8804

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

44
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
1 month

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

612

9 January 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	11
Date of Notice	9 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Harrison	Margaret Thompson
	💍 1919/736
BDM Match (61%)	Edward Osborne Horner	Margaret Annie Thompson
	💍 1919/8804
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	44	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	612
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

9 January 1919

John MacGhie
Alice Winifred Lily Gresty

John MacGhie
Alice Winifred Lily Gresty
💍 1919/737

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

30
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 weeks
2 years

House of S. Hazlett, 9 Silverton Street, Andersons Bay

613

9 January 1919

A. Cameron, Presbyterian

No	12
Date of Notice	9 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John MacGhie	Alice Winifred Lily Gresty
	💍 1919/737
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	House of S. Hazlett, 9 Silverton Street, Andersons Bay
Folio	613
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1919
Officiating Minister	A. Cameron, Presbyterian

11 January 1919

John McLaren Reynolds
Isabell Barclay

John McLaren Reynolds
Isabell Barclay
💍 1919/738

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

34
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

34 years
28 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

614

11 January 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	11 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McLaren Reynolds	Isabell Barclay
	💍 1919/738
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	34 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	614
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

13 January 1919

Frank McCrorie
Myrtle Aitken Clydesdale

Frank McCrorie
Myrtle Aitken Clydesdale
💍 1919/739

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
19 years

House of J. McCrorie, 41 Richardson Street, St. Kilda

615

M. A. Clydesdale (Father)

13 January 1919

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	14
Date of Notice	13 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank McCrorie	Myrtle Aitken Clydesdale
	💍 1919/739
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	19 years
Marriage Place	House of J. McCrorie, 41 Richardson Street, St. Kilda
Folio	615
Consent	M. A. Clydesdale (Father)
Date of Certificate	13 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

13 January 1919

Kenneth William Wright
May Isobel Middleton

Kenneth William Wright
May Isobel Middleton
💍 1919/740

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

45
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
10 days

St. Andrews Church, Dunedin

616

13 January 1919

R. Waddell, Presbyterian

No	15
Date of Notice	13 January 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth William Wright	May Isobel Middleton
	💍 1919/740
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	45	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	10 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Dunedin
Folio	616
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Waddell, 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).