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 2811

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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

123

1 April 1919

Duncan Robinson McDiarmid
Doris Lena McFarlane

Duncan Robinson McDiarmid
Doris Lena McFarlane
💍 1919/2246

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer's assistant

35
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
8 years

Knox Church Dunedin

2003

1 April 1919

R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

No	123
Date of Notice	1 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Robinson McDiarmid	Doris Lena McFarlane
	💍 1919/2246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer's assistant
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	8 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	2003
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

124

2 April 1919

Robert Walter Reay
Hilda Vera Earley

Robert Walter Reay
Hilda Vera Earley
💍 1919/2247

Bachelor
Spinster

Bottler

20
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

16 years
19 years

Presbyterian Manse, 23 Young Street, St. Kilda

2004

A. H. Reay (father) for groom; H. G. Earley (father) for bride

2 April 1919

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	124
Date of Notice	2 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Walter Reay	Hilda Vera Earley
	💍 1919/2247
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bottler
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 23 Young Street, St. Kilda
Folio	2004
Consent	A. H. Reay (father) for groom; H. G. Earley (father) for bride
Date of Certificate	2 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

125

3 April 1919

David Walker Winter
Violet Jessie Templeton

David Walker Winter
Violet Jessie Templeton
💍 1919/2852

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee

24
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
2 years

First Church, Dunedin

2651

3 April 1919

G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian

No	125
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Walker Winter	Violet Jessie Templeton
	💍 1919/2852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	2651
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian

126

3 April 1919

David Edmond Barnes
Lucy Shotton Fernie

David Edmond Barnes
Lucy Shotton Fernie
💍 1919/2863

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

37
32

Wellington
Dunedin

20 years
18 years

Congregational Church, Moray Place, Dunedin

2652

3 April 1919

W. Saunders, Congregational

No	126
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Edmond Barnes	Lucy Shotton Fernie
	💍 1919/2863
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	37	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Moray Place, Dunedin
Folio	2652
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Saunders, Congregational

127

3 April 1919

Albert Payne
Evelyn Ethel Mullin

Albert Payne
Evelyn Ethel Mullin
💍 1919/2870

Previously married at Auckland on the 1st July, 1901 (not heard of wife as above last several years)
Spinster

Labourer

47
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

11 years
33 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

2653

3 April 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	127
Date of Notice	3 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Payne	Evelyn Ethel Mullin
	💍 1919/2870
Condition	Previously married at Auckland on the 1st July, 1901 (not heard of wife as above last several years)	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	47	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	11 years	33 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	2653
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting 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).

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).