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 2889

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar [illegible]

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

504

13 October 1919

Richard James Prebble
Violet Elizabeth McDermott

Richard James Prebble
Violet Elizabeth McDermott
💍 1919/7636

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 days
5 days

St Mary's Church, Mornington

7210

13 October 1919

Rev. J. B. Small (Church of England)

No	504
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard James Prebble	Violet Elizabeth McDermott
	💍 1919/7636
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church, Mornington
Folio	7210
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Small (Church of England)

505

13 October 1919

James McGill Puddy
Lily Ethel Plumb

James McGill Puddy
Lily Ethel Plumb
💍 1919/7614

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
20 years

Methodist Manse, Royal Terrace, Dunedin

7211

13 October 1919

Rev. B. Eaton (Methodist)

No	505
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McGill Puddy	Lily Ethel Plumb
	💍 1919/7614
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, Royal Terrace, Dunedin
Folio	7211
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Eaton (Methodist)

506

13 October 1919

Everard Oswald Rowley
Gladys Margaret Wilkes

Everard Oswald Rowley
Gladys Margaret Wilkes
💍 1919/7615

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

28
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
27 years

St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin

7212

13 October 1919

Rev. E. R. Nevill (Church of England)

No	506
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Everard Oswald Rowley	Gladys Margaret Wilkes
	💍 1919/7615
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	27 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7212
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. R. Nevill (Church of England)

507

13 October 1919

William Leith Rackham
Mabel Violet Louisa Smith

William Leith Rackham
Mabel Violet Louisa Smith
💍 1919/7616

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
18 months

Holy Cross Church, St Kilda

7213

13 October 1919

Rev. V. G. B. King (Church of England)

No	507
Date of Notice	13 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Leith Rackham	Mabel Violet Louisa Smith
	💍 1919/7616
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Holy Cross Church, St Kilda
Folio	7213
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. V. G. B. King (Church of England)

508

14 October 1919

Herbert Lewis Olds
Dorothy Lilian Gibson

Herbert Lewis Olds
Dorothy Lilian Gibson
💍 1919/7617

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

29
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
6 years

Baptist Church, Hanover Street, Dunedin

7214

14 October 1919

Rev. H. K. Kempton (Baptist)

No	508
Date of Notice	14 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Lewis Olds	Dorothy Lilian Gibson
	💍 1919/7617
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Hanover Street, Dunedin
Folio	7214
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. K. Kempton (Baptist)

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).