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 2906

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

589

12 November 1919

Charles Matheson
Reita Margaret McGregor

Charles Matheson
Reita Margaret McGregor
💍 1919/4587

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Labourer

25
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
18 years

House of Rev. J. Oxbrow, Dundas Street, Dunedin

7602

Robert McGregor (Father)

12 November 1919

Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

No	589
Date of Notice	12 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Matheson	Reita Margaret McGregor
	💍 1919/4587
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Labourer
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	18 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. J. Oxbrow, Dundas Street, Dunedin
Folio	7602
Consent	Robert McGregor (Father)
Date of Certificate	12 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Oxbrow (Methodist)

590

12 November 1919

William Frederick Fleming
Elizabeth Catherine Winifred Pink

William Frederick Fleming
Elizabeth Catherine Winifred Pink
💍 1919/4588

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

21
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
8 years

St. Peter's Church, Caversham

7603

12 November 1919

Rev. J. L. Mortimer (Church of England)

No	590
Date of Notice	12 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Fleming	Elizabeth Catherine Winifred Pink
	💍 1919/4588
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Caversham
Folio	7603
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. L. Mortimer (Church of England)

591

12 November 1919

William Abernethy
Anne Goodson Ambridge

William Abernethy
Anne Goodson Ambridge
💍 1919/4589

Widower
Spinster

Gripman

62
59

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
25 years

House of J. Abernethy, 20 Eden Street, Dunedin

7604

12 November 1919

Rev. A. H. Wallace (Congregational)

No	591
Date of Notice	12 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Abernethy	Anne Goodson Ambridge
	💍 1919/4589
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Gripman
Age	62	59
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	25 years
Marriage Place	House of J. Abernethy, 20 Eden Street, Dunedin
Folio	7604
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. H. Wallace (Congregational)

592

13 November 1919

Clement Hall Beck
Lydia Margaret Gaw

Clement Hall Beck
Lydia Margaret Gaw
💍 1919/4590

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 weeks
19 years

Methodist Church, St. Kilda

7605

13 November 1919

Rev. A. Hopper (Methodist)

No	592
Date of Notice	13 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clement Hall Beck	Lydia Margaret Gaw
	💍 1919/4590
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 weeks	19 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, St. Kilda
Folio	7605
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hopper (Methodist)

593

15 November 1919

John Reginald Douglass
Ellen Springthorpe Huggins

John Reginald Douglass
Ellen Springthorpe Huggins
💍 1919/4591

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

22
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 years
21 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

7606

15 November 1919

A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

No	593
Date of Notice	15 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Reginald Douglass	Ellen Springthorpe Huggins
	💍 1919/4591
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	7606
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 November 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Kennedy (Registrar)

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).