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 2917

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A. R. Kennedy

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

644

4 December 1919

George Francis Smith
Iris Margaret Wilkinson

George Francis Smith
Iras Margaret Wilkinson
💍 1919/8051

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

27
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
25 years

House of J. Wilkinson, 287 Leith Street, Dunedin

7653

4 December 1919

Rev. A. S. Wallace (Congregational)

No	644
Date of Notice	4 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Francis Smith	Iris Margaret Wilkinson
BDM Match (98%)	George Francis Smith	Iras Margaret Wilkinson
	💍 1919/8051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	House of J. Wilkinson, 287 Leith Street, Dunedin
Folio	7653
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Wallace (Congregational)

645

4 December 1919

Allan Edwards
Gladys Gordon Ogilvie

Allan Edwards
Gladys Gordon Ogilvie
💍 1919/8052

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
2 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7654

Mary Stewart Law (Guardian)

4 December 1919

A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

No	645
Date of Notice	4 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Edwards	Gladys Gordon Ogilvie
	💍 1919/8052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7654
Consent	Mary Stewart Law (Guardian)
Date of Certificate	4 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

646

4 December 1919

Raymond Murray Watson
Edna Zair Duncan

Raymond Murray Watson
Eona Zair Duncan
💍 1919/8053

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

28
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
26 years

First Church, Dunedin

7655

4 December 1919

Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	646
Date of Notice	4 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Murray Watson	Edna Zair Duncan
BDM Match (97%)	Raymond Murray Watson	Eona Zair Duncan
	💍 1919/8053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	26 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7655
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

647

4 December 1919

George Leonard Bloss
Evelyn Gertrude May Waby

George Leonard Bloss
Evelyn Gertrude Mary Waby
💍 1919/8054

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

31
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
21 years

House of J. A. Ainge, 8 Onslow Street, St Clair

7656

4 December 1919

Rev. J. Miller (Presbyterian)

No	647
Date of Notice	4 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Leonard Bloss	Evelyn Gertrude May Waby
BDM Match (98%)	George Leonard Bloss	Evelyn Gertrude Mary Waby
	💍 1919/8054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	21 years
Marriage Place	House of J. A. Ainge, 8 Onslow Street, St Clair
Folio	7656
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Miller (Presbyterian)

648

4 December 1919

William Henry Gunn
Mary Doyle

William Henry Gunn
Mary Doyle
💍 1919/8055

William Aloysius Kitson
Mary Doyle
💍 1919/922

Bachelor
Widow

Cook

40
41

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
3 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7657

4 December 1919

A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

No	648
Date of Notice	4 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Gunn	Mary Doyle
	💍 1919/8055
BDM Match (72%)	William Aloysius Kitson	Mary Doyle
	💍 1919/922
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Cook
Age	40	41
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7657
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

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).