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 2934

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

729

23 December 1919

Harry Bunt
Ella Jane Josephine Anderson

Harry Bunt
Ella Jane Josephine Anderson
💍 1920/2583

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

36
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 years
24 years

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

1920/27

23 December 1919

Rev. B. Kaveney (Roman Catholic)

No	729
Date of Notice	23 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Bunt	Ella Jane Josephine Anderson
	💍 1920/2583
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1920/27
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Kaveney (Roman Catholic)

730

23 December 1919

Christian Ferdinand Simonsen
Eva Henrietta Lyders

Christian Ferdinand Simonsen
Eva Henrietta Lyders
💍 1919/8109

Bachelor
Spinster

Manufacturer

38
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 years
33 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7735

23 December 1919

A. H. Kennedy, Registrar

No	730
Date of Notice	23 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christian Ferdinand Simonsen	Eva Henrietta Lyders
	💍 1919/8109
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Manufacturer
Age	38	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 years	33 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7735
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. H. Kennedy, Registrar

731

23 December 1919

John James Walsh
Helen Rebecca Carter

John James Walsh
Helen Rebecca Carter
💍 1919/8110

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

32
24

Dunedin
Sawyers Bay

24 years
24 years

First Church, Dunedin

7736 Port Chalmers

23 December 1919

Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	731
Date of Notice	23 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John James Walsh	Helen Rebecca Carter
	💍 1919/8110
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Sawyers Bay
Length of Residence	24 years	24 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7736 Port Chalmers
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

732

23 December 1919

John Henderson
Margaret Smith

John Henderson
Margaret Smith
💍 1919/8111

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

49
33

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
33 years

Presbyterian Manse, South Dunedin

7737

23 December 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

No	732
Date of Notice	23 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henderson	Margaret Smith
	💍 1919/8111
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	49	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	33 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, South Dunedin
Folio	7737
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

733

24 December 1919

John Kane
Mary Guillemot

John Kane
Mary Guillemot
💍 1919/8112

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
37 years

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

7738

24 December 1919

Rev. J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

No	733
Date of Notice	24 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Kane	Mary Guillemot
	💍 1919/8112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	37 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7738
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 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).