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 2903

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar C. J. Morton

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

574

5 November 1919

Albert Dickison
Winifred Harris

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

32 years
9 years

Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin

9580

5 November 1919

Rev. R. E. Davies (Presbyterian)

No	574
Date of Notice	5 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Dickison	Winifred Harris
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	32 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin
Folio	9580
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. E. Davies (Presbyterian)

575

6 November 1919

Thomas Martin Wyber
Daisy Wilkinson Backey

Thomas Martin Wyber
Daisy Wilkinson Mackey
💍 1919/7962

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

32
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
24 years

First Church, Dunedin

7588

6 November 1919

Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	575
Date of Notice	6 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Martin Wyber	Daisy Wilkinson Backey
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Martin Wyber	Daisy Wilkinson Mackey
	💍 1919/7962
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	24 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7588
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

576

7 November 1919

John Todd Slight
Ethel Florence Lorimer

John Todd Flight
Ethel Florence Lorimer
💍 1919/7963

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookbinder

31
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
8 years

House of Mrs Lorimer, 373 Cargill Road, South Dunedin

7589

7 November 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

No	576
Date of Notice	7 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Todd Slight	Ethel Florence Lorimer
BDM Match (97%)	John Todd Flight	Ethel Florence Lorimer
	💍 1919/7963
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookbinder
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	8 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Lorimer, 373 Cargill Road, South Dunedin
Folio	7589
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

577

8 November 1919

George Bevis
Johanna Collins

George Bevis
Johanna Collins
💍 1919/7964

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

32
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

32 years
30 years

Sacred Heart Church, North East Valley

7590

8 November 1919

Rev. J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

No	577
Date of Notice	8 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Bevis	Johanna Collins
	💍 1919/7964
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	32 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, North East Valley
Folio	7590
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

578

8 November 1919

Joseph Mendelsohn
Jeanie Jonas

Joseph Mendelsolm
Jeanie Jonas
💍 1919/7965

Bachelor
Spinster

Tobacconist

53
43

Dunedin
Dunedin

53 years
5 years

Synagogue, Moray Place, Dunedin

7591

8 November 1919

Rev. M. Diamond (Hebrew)

No	578
Date of Notice	8 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Mendelsohn	Jeanie Jonas
BDM Match (94%)	Joseph Mendelsolm	Jeanie Jonas
	💍 1919/7965
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tobacconist
Age	53	43
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	53 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Synagogue, Moray Place, Dunedin
Folio	7591
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Diamond (Hebrew)

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).