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 2937

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

744

29 December 1919

Gavin Miller Wilson
Jane Maria Dorothea Hansen

Gavin Miller Wilson
Ane Maria Dorothea Hansen
💍 1920/2593

Widower
Spinster

Boilermaker

27
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 days
6 years

House of S. Griffith, 66 Fitzroy Street, Caversham

31/7920

29 December 1919

Rev. S. Griffith (Methodist)

No	744
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gavin Miller Wilson	Jane Maria Dorothea Hansen
BDM Match (96%)	Gavin Miller Wilson	Ane Maria Dorothea Hansen
	💍 1920/2593
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 days	6 years
Marriage Place	House of S. Griffith, 66 Fitzroy Street, Caversham
Folio	31/7920
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Griffith (Methodist)

745

29 December 1919

William Patterson
Frances Nairn Mawson

William Patterson
Frances Nairn Mawson
💍 1919/8117

Bachelor
Spinster

Town Clerk

30
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
5 weeks

First Church, Dunedin

7743

29 December 1919

Rev. R. A. Chisholm (Presbyterian)

No	745
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Patterson	Frances Nairn Mawson
	💍 1919/8117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Town Clerk
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7743
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. A. Chisholm (Presbyterian)

746

29 December 1919

William James Gunning
Jemima Brown Dunlop

William James Gunning
Jemima Brown Dunlop
💍 1919/8119

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor's Cutter

42
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

42 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7744

29 December 1919

A. H. Kennedy, Registrar

No	746
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Gunning	Jemima Brown Dunlop
	💍 1919/8119
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor's Cutter
Age	42	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	42 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7744
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. H. Kennedy, Registrar

747

29 December 1919

Sidney Harold Walter Jane
Martha Maud Margaret Ann Rees Nicholson

Sydney Harold Walter Jane
Martha Maud Margaret Ann Rees Nicholson
💍 1919/8120

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 years

St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin

7745

29 December 1919

Canon E. R. Nevill (Church of England)

No	747
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Harold Walter Jane	Martha Maud Margaret Ann Rees Nicholson
BDM Match (98%)	Sydney Harold Walter Jane	Martha Maud Margaret Ann Rees Nicholson
	💍 1919/8120
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7745
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Canon E. R. Nevill (Church of England)

748

29 December 1919

Percy James Schluter
Olga Cecilia Dillon

Percy James Schluter
Olga Cecilia Dillon
💍 1919/8121

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

26
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 days
7 years

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

7746

29 December 1919

Rev J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

No	748
Date of Notice	29 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy James Schluter	Olga Cecilia Dillon
	💍 1919/8121
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 days	7 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7746
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

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).