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 2914

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

629

2 December 1919

Archie Ellwood
Maud Isabella Struthers

Archie Ellwood
Maud Isabella Struthers
💍 1919/7987

Bachelor
Widow

Attendant

31
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St Stephens Church Dunedin

7638

2 December 1919

Rev. W. F. Evans, Presbyterian

No	629
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archie Ellwood	Maud Isabella Struthers
	💍 1919/7987
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Attendant
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Stephens Church Dunedin
Folio	7638
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. F. Evans, Presbyterian

630

2 December 1919

Harold Browther
Charlotte Emma Williams

Harold Crowther
Charlotte Emma Williams
💍 1919/7988

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
24 years

Residence of Mr H. G. Williams, 923 Cumberland Street, Dunedin

7639

2 December 1919

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow, Methodist

No	630
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Browther	Charlotte Emma Williams
BDM Match (97%)	Harold Crowther	Charlotte Emma Williams
	💍 1919/7988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr H. G. Williams, 923 Cumberland Street, Dunedin
Folio	7639
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow, Methodist

631

2 December 1919

Everard Cecil Brown
Rosa Alice Fisher

Everard Cecil Brown
Rosa Alice Fisher
💍 1919/7989

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent

21
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
22 years

Baptist Church Hanover Street Dunedin

7640

2 December 1919

Rev. H. Knowles Kempton, Baptist

No	631
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Everard Cecil Brown	Rosa Alice Fisher
	💍 1919/7989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Hanover Street Dunedin
Folio	7640
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Knowles Kempton, Baptist

632

2 December 1919

Wilfred Wesley Graydon
Violet May Jarvis

Wilfred Wesley Graydon
Violet May Jarvis
💍 1919/7990

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorman

24
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
24 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

7641

2 December 1919

Rev. F. V. Fisher, Church of England

No	632
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Wesley Graydon	Violet May Jarvis
	💍 1919/7990
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorman
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	24 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	7641
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. V. Fisher, Church of England

633

2 December 1919

Frederick Francis Burgess
Julia Ashfield

Frederick Francis Burgess
Julia Athfield
💍 1919/7991

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

28
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 years
19 years

St Peters Church South Dunedin

7642

3 December 1919

Rev. J. L. Mortimer, Church of England

No	633
Date of Notice	2 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Francis Burgess	Julia Ashfield
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick Francis Burgess	Julia Athfield
	💍 1919/7991
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church South Dunedin
Folio	7642
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. L. Mortimer, Church of England

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).