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 2916

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar [illegible]

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

639

3 December 1919

John Grigg
Mary Hughes

John Grigg
Mary Hughes
💍 1919/7998

John Kearney
Mary Hughes
💍 1919/9659

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

38
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin

7648

3 December 1919

Rev. C. Ardagh (Roman Catholic)

No	639
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Grigg	Mary Hughes
	💍 1919/7998
BDM Match (75%)	John Kearney	Mary Hughes
	💍 1919/9659
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	38	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	7648
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Ardagh (Roman Catholic)

640

3 December 1919

Allan Kyle Marr
Margaret Smith Fleming

Allan Kyle Marr
Margaret Smith Fleming
💍 1919/7999

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

26
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

22 years
12 months

First Church Manse Dunedin

7649

3 December 1919

Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	640
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Kyle Marr	Margaret Smith Fleming
	💍 1919/7999
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	22 years	12 months
Marriage Place	First Church Manse Dunedin
Folio	7649
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

641

3 December 1919

John Sutherland Prentice
Doris Antoinette Bagley

John Sutherland Prentice
Doris Antoinette Bagley
💍 1919/8032

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

28
24

Wellington
Dunedin

3 years
24 years

Presbyterian Church Albert Street St Kilda

7650

3 December 1919

Rev. J. Miller (Presbyterian)

No	641
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sutherland Prentice	Doris Antoinette Bagley
	💍 1919/8032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Albert Street St Kilda
Folio	7650
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Miller (Presbyterian)

642

3 December 1919

Charles Edward Brown
Barbara Janet Isabel Boyd

Charles Edward Brown
Barbara Janet Isabella Boyd
💍 1919/8043

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

28
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

24 years
30 years

House of Mr. C. Eaton 56 Royal Terrace Dunedin

7651

3 December 1919

Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

No	642
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Brown	Barbara Janet Isabel Boyd
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Edward Brown	Barbara Janet Isabella Boyd
	💍 1919/8043
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	24 years	30 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. C. Eaton 56 Royal Terrace Dunedin
Folio	7651
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

643

3 December 1919

Walter Henderson Wilson
Christina Walker Gavins

Walter Henderson Wilson
Christina Walker Cairns
💍 1919/8050

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

32
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 weeks
4 years

Church of Christ King Street Dunedin

7652

3 December 1919

Rev. S. G. Griffith (Church of Christ)

No	643
Date of Notice	3 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Henderson Wilson	Christina Walker Gavins
BDM Match (94%)	Walter Henderson Wilson	Christina Walker Cairns
	💍 1919/8050
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 weeks	4 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ King Street Dunedin
Folio	7652
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. G. Griffith (Church of Christ)

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).