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 2815

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar U. Mandl

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

143

9 April 1919

William John Suters
May Gertrude Merrie

William John Suters
May Gertrude Merrie
💍 1919/2861

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

27
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 years
4 years

St. Marys Church, Mornington.

2668

9 April 1919

J. C. Small, Presbyterian.

No	143
Date of Notice	9 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Suters	May Gertrude Merrie
	💍 1919/2861
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Marys Church, Mornington.
Folio	2668
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1919
Officiating Minister	J. C. Small, Presbyterian.

144

10 April 1919

Harold Last Gray
Mabel Jean Ker

Harold Last Gray
Mabel Jean Ker
💍 1919/2862

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

29
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
12 years

St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin

2669

10 April 1919

J. P. Delany, Roman Catholic

No	144
Date of Notice	10 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Last Gray	Mabel Jean Ker
	💍 1919/2862
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Basilica, South Dunedin
Folio	2669
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 April 1919
Officiating Minister	J. P. Delany, Roman Catholic

145

11 April 1919

Walter Holland Stone
Catherine Christie Cunningham

Walter Holland Stone
Catherine Christie Cunningham
💍 1919/2864

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial traveller

25
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 weeks
19 years

First Church Manse, Dunedin.

2670

J. Cunningham (father)

11 April 1919

G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian.

No	145
Date of Notice	11 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Holland Stone	Catherine Christie Cunningham
	💍 1919/2864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial traveller
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 weeks	19 years
Marriage Place	First Church Manse, Dunedin.
Folio	2670
Consent	J. Cunningham (father)
Date of Certificate	11 April 1919
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian.

146

11 April 1919

Stewart Gibson
Agnes Mary Wilson

Stewart Gibson
Agnes Mary Wilson
💍 1919/2865

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial traveller

40
30

Dunedin
St. Kilda

9 years
30 years

House of J. Wilson, 95 Queens Drive, St. Kilda

2671

11 April 1919

G. H. Jupp, Presbyterian.

No	146
Date of Notice	11 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stewart Gibson	Agnes Mary Wilson
	💍 1919/2865
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial traveller
Age	40	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St. Kilda
Length of Residence	9 years	30 years
Marriage Place	House of J. Wilson, 95 Queens Drive, St. Kilda
Folio	2671
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1919
Officiating Minister	G. H. Jupp, Presbyterian.

147

11 April 1919

Alfred William Griffen Hudson
Lucy Ellen Kerr

Alfred William Griffan Hudson
Lucy Ellen Kerr
💍 1919/2866

Widower, 7 September 1907
Widow, 31 December 1903

Packer

50
47

Dunedin
West Harbour

50 years
2 weeks

House of M. Smith, 20 District Road, West Harbour.

2672

11 April 1919

A. Gray, Presbyterian.

No	147
Date of Notice	11 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred William Griffen Hudson	Lucy Ellen Kerr
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred William Griffan Hudson	Lucy Ellen Kerr
	💍 1919/2866
Condition	Widower, 7 September 1907	Widow, 31 December 1903
Profession	Packer
Age	50	47
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	West Harbour
Length of Residence	50 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	House of M. Smith, 20 District Road, West Harbour.
Folio	2672
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1919
Officiating Minister	A. Gray, 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).