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 2908

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

599

17 November 1919

William Smith
Nellie Gilks

William Smith
Nellie Gilks
💍 1919/4573

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
23 years

Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin

7612

17 November 1919

Rev. R. E. Davies (Presbyterian)

No	599
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Smith	Nellie Gilks
	💍 1919/4573
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Vestry, Dunedin
Folio	7612
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. E. Davies (Presbyterian)

600

17 November 1919

Thomas Harris
May Doudle

Thomas Harris
May Doudle
💍 1919/4574

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

31
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 year
26 years

Sacred Heart Church, North East Valley

7613

17 November 1919

Rev. J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

No	600
Date of Notice	17 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Harris	May Doudle
	💍 1919/4574
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	26 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church, North East Valley
Folio	7613
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Coffey (Roman Catholic)

601

18 November 1919

Ronald Allan Sutherland
Winiford Maud Boucher

Ronald Allan Sutherland
Winiford Maud Boutcher
💍 1919/4575

Bachelor
Spinster

Furniture Packer

32
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
4 days

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7614

18 November 1919

A. R. Kennedy, Registrar

No	601
Date of Notice	18 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald Allan Sutherland	Winiford Maud Boucher
BDM Match (98%)	Ronald Allan Sutherland	Winiford Maud Boutcher
	💍 1919/4575
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Furniture Packer
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7614
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 November 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Kennedy, Registrar

602

18 November 1919

Percy Leonard Gerry
Henrietta Bryant

Percy Leonard Gerry
Henrietta Bryant
💍 1919/4576

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy Farmer

29
31

Ravensbourne
Ravensbourne

18 years
10 years

Methodist Manse, Dundas Street, Dunedin

7615

18 November 1919

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

No	602
Date of Notice	18 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Leonard Gerry	Henrietta Bryant
	💍 1919/4576
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy Farmer
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Ravensbourne	Ravensbourne
Length of Residence	18 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, Dundas Street, Dunedin
Folio	7615
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

603

19 November 1919

Charlie Boyles
Margaret Ann Wallace

Charlie Boyles
Margaret Ann Wallace
💍 1919/9731

Widower 12: 1: 17
Spinster

Confectioner

39
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 years
30 years

Residence of Rev. C. Eaton, 56 Royal Terrace, Dunedin

9524

19 November 1919

Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

No	603
Date of Notice	19 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charlie Boyles	Margaret Ann Wallace
	💍 1919/9731
Condition	Widower 12: 1: 17	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	39	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. C. Eaton, 56 Royal Terrace, Dunedin
Folio	9524
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Eaton (Methodist)

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).