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 2931

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar Chas E. Smith

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

714

22 December 1919

Alexander McNeur
Margaret Wilkie McLaren

Alexander McNeur
Margaret Wilkie McLaren
💍 1919/8095

Bachelor
Spinster

Clergyman

36
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
26 years

Presbyterian Church Maori Hill

7720

22 December 1919

Rev. H. H. Barton (Presbyterian)

No	714
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McNeur	Margaret Wilkie McLaren
	💍 1919/8095
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clergyman
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Maori Hill
Folio	7720
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. H. Barton (Presbyterian)

715

22 December 1919

Alonzo Bertram Lye
Isa Bella Ann Moore

Alonzo Bertram Lye
Isa Bella Ann Moore
💍 1919/8096

Bachelor
Spinster

Stereotyper

29
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

29 years
4 days

House of Rev. C. Eaton 56 Royal Terrace Dunedin

7721

22 December 1919

Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

No	715
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alonzo Bertram Lye	Isa Bella Ann Moore
	💍 1919/8096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stereotyper
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	29 years	4 days
Marriage Place	House of Rev. C. Eaton 56 Royal Terrace Dunedin
Folio	7721
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

716

22 December 1919

Thomas Holland Spence
Emma Matilda Sinclair

Thomas Hollands Spence
Emma Matilda Sinclair
💍 1919/8097

Bachelor
Spinster

Drapery Salesman

28
25

Abbotsford
Dunedin

7 months
2 years

House of A. Sinclair 3 Lonsdale Street Mornington

7722

22 December 1919

Mr. A. C. Crisp (Church of Christ)

No	716
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Holland Spence	Emma Matilda Sinclair
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Hollands Spence	Emma Matilda Sinclair
	💍 1919/8097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drapery Salesman
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Abbotsford	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 months	2 years
Marriage Place	House of A. Sinclair 3 Lonsdale Street Mornington
Folio	7722
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Mr. A. C. Crisp (Church of Christ)

717

22 December 1919

John Davis Saul
Alice Hazel Paterson

John Davis Saul
Alice Hazel Paterson
💍 1919/8098

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber and Gasfitter

20
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

16 years
19 years

Methodist Church Dundas Street Dunedin

7723

Rhoda Mary Saul (Mother) [for groom]; Emma Elizabeth Paterson (Mother) [for bride]

22 December 1919

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

No	717
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Davis Saul	Alice Hazel Paterson
	💍 1919/8098
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber and Gasfitter
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Dundas Street Dunedin
Folio	7723
Consent	Rhoda Mary Saul (Mother) [for groom]; Emma Elizabeth Paterson (Mother) [for bride]
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

718

22 December 1919

Robert George Miles
Isabella Anne Brown

Robert George Miles
Isabella Anne Brown
💍 1919/8099

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

51
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

7724

22 December 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

No	718
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert George Miles	Isabella Anne Brown
	💍 1919/8099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	51	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	7724
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid (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).