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 2920

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A. M. O'Meara

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

659

9 December 1919

Leslie Herbert Perry
Elizabeth Emily Blackwell

Leslie Herbert Perry
Elizabeth Emily Blackwell
💍 1919/8042

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
22

Fairfield
Dunedin

3 years
6 days

St Matthew's Church Dunedin

7668

9 December 1919

Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

No	659
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Herbert Perry	Elizabeth Emily Blackwell
	💍 1919/8042
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Fairfield	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	6 days
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Dunedin
Folio	7668
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

660

9 December 1919

John Kennedy Weir
Estella Jessie Amaill

John Kennedy Weir
Estella Jessie Smaill
💍 1919/8044

Widower 19 February 1918
Spinster

Farmer

26
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Church of Christ King Street Dunedin

7669

9 December 1919

Rev. S. G. Griffith, Church of Christ

No	660
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Kennedy Weir	Estella Jessie Amaill
BDM Match (98%)	John Kennedy Weir	Estella Jessie Smaill
	💍 1919/8044
Condition	Widower 19 February 1918	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of Christ King Street Dunedin
Folio	7669
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. G. Griffith, Church of Christ

661

9 December 1919

James Finlay
Beatrice Olivia Bushell

James Finlay
Beatrix Olivia Bushell
💍 1919/8045

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 8 December 1919.

Farmer

32
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
2 years

House of Mrs White 108 Dundas Street Dunedin

7670

9 December 1919

Rev. R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

No	661
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Finlay	Beatrice Olivia Bushell
BDM Match (96%)	James Finlay	Beatrix Olivia Bushell
	💍 1919/8045
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 8 December 1919.
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs White 108 Dundas Street Dunedin
Folio	7670
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. E. Davies, Presbyterian

662

9 December 1919

David Leslie Reid
Margaret Ann McCloy

David Leslie Reid
Margaret Ann McCloy
💍 1919/8046

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin

7671

9 December 1919

Rev. W. A. McMullan, Roman Catholic

No	662
Date of Notice	9 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Leslie Reid	Margaret Ann McCloy
	💍 1919/8046
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	7671
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. McMullan, Roman Catholic

663

10 December 1919

David Newlands
Rachel Avison

David Newlands
Rachel Avison
💍 1919/8047

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulder

27
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 year
8 months

Presbyterian Manse Young Street St Kilda

7672

Henry Avison Father

10 December 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	663
Date of Notice	10 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Newlands	Rachel Avison
	💍 1919/8047
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulder
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	8 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Young Street St Kilda
Folio	7672
Consent	Henry Avison Father
Date of Certificate	10 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).