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 2887

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A. H. McLymont

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

494

6 October 1919

Alexander Bain Stewart
Dorothy Eunice Allnutt

Alexander Bain Stewart
Dorothy Eunice Allnutt
💍 1919/4516

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

29
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
24 years

Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin

7200

6 October 1919

Rev. J. Parker, Methodist

No	494
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Bain Stewart	Dorothy Eunice Allnutt
	💍 1919/4516
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	24 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin
Folio	7200
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Parker, Methodist

495

6 October 1919

John Fitzgerald
Isabella Livingston Mathieson

John Fitzgerald
Isabella Livingston Mathieson
💍 1919/7613

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

36
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

15 years
25 years

At the residence of Mr D. Mathieson, 26 Eden Street, Dunedin

7201

6 October 1919

Rev. A. H. Wallace, Congregational

No	495
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fitzgerald	Isabella Livingston Mathieson
	💍 1919/7613
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	15 years	25 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr D. Mathieson, 26 Eden Street, Dunedin
Folio	7201
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. H. Wallace, Congregational

496

6 October 1919

William Jones Dixon
Mary Quigley

William Jones Dyson
Mary Quigley
💍 1919/7624

Bachelor
Spinster

Lithographer

29
27

West Harbour
Dunedin

3 years
15 months

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

7202

6 October 1919

Rev. B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

No	496
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Jones Dixon	Mary Quigley
BDM Match (95%)	William Jones Dyson	Mary Quigley
	💍 1919/7624
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lithographer
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	West Harbour	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	15 months
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7202
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

497

6 October 1919

Algeon Harold Horner
Doris Maude Mackie

Algeon Harold Horner
Doris Maude Mackie
💍 1919/7630

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

23
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
12 years

Chalmers Manse, Garfield Avenue, Roslyn

7203

6 October 1919

Rev. E. Adams, Presbyterian

No	497
Date of Notice	6 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Algeon Harold Horner	Doris Maude Mackie
	💍 1919/7630
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Chalmers Manse, Garfield Avenue, Roslyn
Folio	7203
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Adams, Presbyterian

498

7 October 1919

Samuel Porter
Ruby Louisa Ryan

Samuel Porter
Ruby Louisa Ryan
💍 1919/7631

Bachelor
Spinster

General merchant

41
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 years

House of J. E. Ryan, 14 Albert Street, St Kilda

7204

7 October 1919

Rev. R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

No	498
Date of Notice	7 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Porter	Ruby Louisa Ryan
	💍 1919/7631
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	General merchant
Age	41	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	House of J. E. Ryan, 14 Albert Street, St Kilda
Folio	7204
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).