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 2907

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

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

594

17 November 1919

William Thomas
Ethel Elizabeth Woodward

William Thomas
Ethel Elizabeth Woodward
💍 1919/4592

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

31
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 years
27 years

St. Mark's Church, North East Valley

7607

17 November 1919

Rev. N. A. Friberg, Church of England

No	594
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas	Ethel Elizabeth Woodward
	💍 1919/4592
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 years	27 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, North East Valley
Folio	7607
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. N. A. Friberg, Church of England

595

17 November 1919

Charles Henry Burgess commonly known as (Burgess-Newman)
Ada May Neilson

Charles Henry Newman
Ada May Neilson
💍 1919/4593

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

24
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
23 years

House of J. Neilson, 16 Marion Street, Caversham

7608

17 November 1919

Rev. S. Griffith, Methodist

No	595
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Burgess commonly known as (Burgess-Newman)	Ada May Neilson
BDM Match (68%)	Charles Henry Newman	Ada May Neilson
	💍 1919/4593
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	23 years
Marriage Place	House of J. Neilson, 16 Marion Street, Caversham
Folio	7608
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Griffith, Methodist

596

17 November 1919

David Rose
Mary Douglas

David Rose
Mary Douglas
💍 1919/4570

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

35
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

11 years
8 years

Residence of Mr. Thomas Douglas, 5 Wesley Street, South Dunedin

7609

17 November 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	596
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Rose	Mary Douglas
	💍 1919/4570
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	35	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	11 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Thomas Douglas, 5 Wesley Street, South Dunedin
Folio	7609
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

597

17 November 1919

Stanley Archibald Hall
Mona Mary Thruston

Stanley Archibald Hall
Mona Mary Thruston
💍 1919/4571

Bachelor
Spinster

Auctioneer

33
23

Invercargill
Dunedin

2 years
18 years

House of W. R. Urquhart, Macandrews Bay

7610

17 November 1919

Rev. G. McDonald, Presbyterian

No	597
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Archibald Hall	Mona Mary Thruston
	💍 1919/4571
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Auctioneer
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	18 years
Marriage Place	House of W. R. Urquhart, Macandrews Bay
Folio	7610
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. McDonald, Presbyterian

598

17 November 1919

Ernest Thomas Ross
Annie Barnett

Ernest Thomas Ross
Annie Barnett
💍 1919/4572

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

31
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
15 years

First Church, Dunedin

7611

17 November 1919

Rev. G. McDonald, Presbyterian

No	598
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Thomas Ross	Annie Barnett
	💍 1919/4572
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	15 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7611
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. McDonald, 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).