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 2807

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

111

24 March 1919

Oscar Raymond Blair
Alexandrina Sinclair

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 year
20 years

First Church Manse, Dunedin.

W.R. Sinclair (Father.)

24 March 1919

G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian.

No	111
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oscar Raymond Blair	Alexandrina Sinclair
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	20 years
Marriage Place	First Church Manse, Dunedin.
Folio
Consent	W.R. Sinclair (Father.)
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian.

112

24 March 1919

George Nicholson McIntosh
Agnes Berry

George Nicholson McIntosh
Agnes Berry
💍 1919/1205

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 days
5 days

First Church Dunedin

1701

24 March 1919

A.V.G. Chandler, Presbyterian.

No	112
Date of Notice	24 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Nicholson McIntosh	Agnes Berry
	💍 1919/1205
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	1701
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1919
Officiating Minister	A.V.G. Chandler, Presbyterian.

113

25 March 1919

Arthur Edward Clark
Gladys Jessie Barclay

Arthur Edward Clark
Gladys Jessie Barclay
💍 1919/875

Bachelor
Spinster

Mill hand

22
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
3 years

St. Stephens Manse, Dunedin.

703

J. Barclay (Mother)

25 March 1919

W.F. Evans, Presbyterian.

No	113
Date of Notice	25 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Edward Clark	Gladys Jessie Barclay
	💍 1919/875
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mill hand
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Stephens Manse, Dunedin.
Folio	703
Consent	J. Barclay (Mother)
Date of Certificate	25 March 1919
Officiating Minister	W.F. Evans, Presbyterian.

114

25 March 1919

Thomas Wallen
Ethel May Houghton

Thomas Wallen
Ethel May Houghton
💍 1919/876

Widower 20.1.93
Widow 4.8.18.

Warehouseman

58
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

30 years
27 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

704

25 March 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

No	114
Date of Notice	25 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Wallen	Ethel May Houghton
	💍 1919/876
Condition	Widower 20.1.93	Widow 4.8.18.
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	58	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	30 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	704
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

115

26 March 1919

Claud Hamilton Hepburn
Elizabeth Cain

Claud Hamilton Hepburn
Elizabeth Cain
💍 1919/1216

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical engineer

39
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
6 years

St. Andrews Church, Dunedin.

1702

26 March 1919

A.C. Randerson, Presbyterian.

No	115
Date of Notice	26 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claud Hamilton Hepburn	Elizabeth Cain
	💍 1919/1216
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical engineer
Age	39	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Dunedin.
Folio	1702
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1919
Officiating Minister	A.C. Randerson, 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).