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 2910

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

609

22 November 1919

Ernest Marshall
Ellen Jane Sterling

Ernest Marshall
Ellen Jane Sterling
💍 1919/4583

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

38
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 months
7 years

House of A Marshall, 16 Market Street, St Kilda

7621

22 November 1919

Rev. G. H. Jupp, Presbyterian

No	609
Date of Notice	22 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Marshall	Ellen Jane Sterling
	💍 1919/4583
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	38	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 months	7 years
Marriage Place	House of A Marshall, 16 Market Street, St Kilda
Folio	7621
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Jupp, Presbyterian

610

22 November 1919

Alfred Clarence Lethaby
Ellen Josephine Reddy

Alfred Clarence Lethaby
Ellen Josephine Reddy
💍 1919/4584

Bachelor
Spinster

Operator

27
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

27 years
10 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin

7622

22 November 1919

Rev. F. V. Fisher, Church of England

No	610
Date of Notice	22 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Clarence Lethaby	Ellen Josephine Reddy
	💍 1919/4584
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Operator
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	27 years	10 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	7622
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. V. Fisher, Church of England

611

24 November 1919

William Hallahan
Anne Merin

William Hallahan
Anne Kerin
💍 1919/4585

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

47
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
4 days

St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

7623

24 November 1919

Rev. J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

No	611
Date of Notice	24 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hallahan	Anne Merin
BDM Match (95%)	William Hallahan	Anne Kerin
	💍 1919/4585
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	47	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	7623
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

612

24 November 1919

James Albert Arthur
Veda Mary McDonald

James Albert Arthur
Veda Mary McDonald
💍 1919/4586

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
1 week

First Church, Dunedin

7624

24 November 1919

Rev. R. S. Watson, Presbyterian

No	612
Date of Notice	24 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Albert Arthur	Veda Mary McDonald
	💍 1919/4586
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	7624
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. S. Watson, Presbyterian

613

24 November 1919

William Gemmell
Annie Lakmer Wills

William Gemmell
Annie Latimer Mills
💍 1919/7982

William Gemmell
Ada Anne Evans
💍 1919/1524

Widower 11:4:15
Spinster

Joiner

33
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
34 years

St Matthews Church, Dunedin

7625

24 November 1919

Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

No	613
Date of Notice	24 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gemmell	Annie Lakmer Wills
BDM Match (92%)	William Gemmell	Annie Latimer Mills
	💍 1919/7982
BDM Match (64%)	William Gemmell	Ada Anne Evans
	💍 1919/1524
Condition	Widower 11:4:15	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	34 years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Dunedin
Folio	7625
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, 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).