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 2905

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar C. H. Manson

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

584

10 November 1919

William Charles Hughes
Mary Kiely

William Charles Hughes
Mary Kiely
💍 1919/7972

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotelkeeper

37
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
35 years

St Josephs Cathedral Dunedin

7597

10 November 1919

Rev. B. Kaveney (Roman Catholic)

No	584
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Charles Hughes	Mary Kiely
	💍 1919/7972
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotelkeeper
Age	37	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	35 years
Marriage Place	St Josephs Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	7597
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Kaveney (Roman Catholic)

585

10 November 1919

Owen Ernest Macfie
Sarah Cooper Robinson

Owen Ernest Macfie
Sarah Cooper Robinson
💍 1919/7973

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

36
36

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
6 months

Holy Cross Church St Kilda

7598

10 November 1919

Rev. A. Wingfield (Church of England)

No	585
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Owen Ernest Macfie	Sarah Cooper Robinson
	💍 1919/7973
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Holy Cross Church St Kilda
Folio	7598
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Wingfield (Church of England)

586

11 November 1919

Robert Leggit Karaitiana
Olivia Fowler

Robert Leggit Karaitiana
Olivia Fowler
💍 1919/7974

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

20
19

Taiaroa Heads
Taiaroa Heads

2 months
19 years

St Michael's Church Anderson's Bay

7599

Ruiha Titapu Karaitiana (Mother); Edward Fowler (Father)

11 November 1919

Rev. G. H. R. Fenton (Church of England)

No	586
Date of Notice	11 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Leggit Karaitiana	Olivia Fowler
	💍 1919/7974
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Taiaroa Heads	Taiaroa Heads
Length of Residence	2 months	19 years
Marriage Place	St Michael's Church Anderson's Bay
Folio	7599
Consent	Ruiha Titapu Karaitiana (Mother); Edward Fowler (Father)
Date of Certificate	11 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. R. Fenton (Church of England)

587

11 November 1919

Harold Ernest Sapsford
Eliza King

Harold Ernest Sapsford
Eliza King
💍 1919/4569

Bachelor
Spinster

Ledgerkeeper

31
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
3 months

Methodist Church Stuart Street Dunedin

7600

11 November 1919

Rev. M. A. R. Pratt (Methodist)

No	587
Date of Notice	11 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Ernest Sapsford	Eliza King
	💍 1919/4569
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ledgerkeeper
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Stuart Street Dunedin
Folio	7600
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. A. R. Pratt (Methodist)

588

11 November 1919

Wilfrid Thomas Goodwin
Anne Mabel Pink

Wilfred Thomas Goodwin
Anne Mabel Pink
💍 1919/4580

Bachelor
Spinster

Orchard Instructor

33
31

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
8 years

St Peter's Church Caversham

7601

11 November 1919

Rev. J. L. Mortimer (Church of England)

No	588
Date of Notice	11 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfrid Thomas Goodwin	Anne Mabel Pink
BDM Match (98%)	Wilfred Thomas Goodwin	Anne Mabel Pink
	💍 1919/4580
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Orchard Instructor
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	8 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Caversham
Folio	7601
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. L. Mortimer (Church of England)

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).