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 2919

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A. K. 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

654

8 December 1919

Howard Beecham Patrick
Lucy Davidson

Howard Beechan Pattrick
Docy Davidson
💍 1919/8037

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

34
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 weeks
20 years

House of W. Davidson, 38 Elgin Road, Mornington

7663

8 December 1919

Rev. R. Waddell (Presbyterian)

No	654
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Beecham Patrick	Lucy Davidson
BDM Match (88%)	Howard Beechan Pattrick	Docy Davidson
	💍 1919/8037
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 weeks	20 years
Marriage Place	House of W. Davidson, 38 Elgin Road, Mornington
Folio	7663
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Waddell (Presbyterian)

655

8 December 1919

Charles Bradlaugh Stewart
Elizabeth Matilda Anderson

Charles Bradlaugh Stewart
Elizabeth Matilda Anderson
💍 1919/8038

Bachelor
Spinster

French Polisher

31
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

24 years
25 years

Presbyterian Manse South Dunedin

7664

8 December 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

No	655
Date of Notice	8 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Bradlaugh Stewart	Elizabeth Matilda Anderson
	💍 1919/8038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	French Polisher
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	24 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse South Dunedin
Folio	7664
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

656

9 December 1919

Irving Dent
Annabella Finlayson

Irving Dent
Annabella Finlayson
💍 1919/8039

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

41
44

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
6 years

St Andrew's Church Dunedin

7665

9 December 1919

Rev. A. M. Dalrymple (Presbyterian)

No	656
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Irving Dent	Annabella Finlayson
	💍 1919/8039
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	41	44
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church Dunedin
Folio	7665
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Dalrymple (Presbyterian)

657

9 December 1919

Frederick Albert Benfell
Myrtle Clare Walker

Frederick Albert Benfell
Myrtle Clara Walker
💍 1919/8040

Bachelor
Spinster

Turner and Fitter

34
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
12 years

First Church Manse Dunedin

7666

9 December 1919

Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	657
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Albert Benfell	Myrtle Clare Walker
BDM Match (97%)	Frederick Albert Benfell	Myrtle Clara Walker
	💍 1919/8040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Turner and Fitter
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	12 years
Marriage Place	First Church Manse Dunedin
Folio	7666
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

658

9 December 1919

John Porter
Mary Neilson Ferguson

John Porter
Mary Neilson Ferguson
💍 1919/8041

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

26
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
3 years

Registrar's office Dunedin

7667

9 December 1919

A. K. Kennedy Registrar

No	658
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Porter	Mary Neilson Ferguson
	💍 1919/8041
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Dunedin
Folio	7667
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. K. 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).