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 2896

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar W. Bennett

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

539

24 October 1919

Albert Goodwin
Flora Phyllis Galbraith

Albert Goodwin
Flora Phyllis Galbraith
💍 1919/8027

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

31
19

Dunedin
Broad Bay

18 years
6 months

All Saints Church Dunedin

7554

John Edward Galbraith (Father)

24 October 1919

Very Rev. Dean Fitchett (Church of England)

No	539
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Goodwin	Flora Phyllis Galbraith
	💍 1919/8027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Broad Bay
Length of Residence	18 years	6 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	7554
Consent	John Edward Galbraith (Father)
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Dean Fitchett (Church of England)

540

24 October 1919

Herbert John Wilson
Jane Nelson Milligan

Herbert John Wilson
Jane Nelson Milligan
💍 1919/8028

Bachelor
Spinster

Bread baker

20
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
10 years

Residence of Rev. A. Hopper 52 Queen's Drive St Kilda

7555

John Wilson (Father)

24 October 1919

Rev. A. Hopper (Methodist)

No	540
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Wilson	Jane Nelson Milligan
	💍 1919/8028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bread baker
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. A. Hopper 52 Queen's Drive St Kilda
Folio	7555
Consent	John Wilson (Father)
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hopper (Methodist)

541

24 October 1919

Albert George Augustus Swanson
Mary Ann Jenkins

Albert George Augustus Swanson
Mary Ann Jenkins
💍 1919/8029

Bachelor
Spinster

Wood Machinist

30
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

15 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

7556

24 October 1919

Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

No	541
Date of Notice	24 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Augustus Swanson	Mary Ann Jenkins
	💍 1919/8029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wood Machinist
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	15 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	7556
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Fairmaid (Presbyterian)

542

25 October 1919

John William Swale
Martha Margaret Scott

John William Swale
Martha Margaret Scott
💍 1919/9776

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

22
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
8 years

Methodist Church Cargill Road South Dunedin

9569

25 October 1919

Rev. R. Raine (Methodist)

No	542
Date of Notice	25 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Swale	Martha Margaret Scott
	💍 1919/9776
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	8 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Cargill Road South Dunedin
Folio	9569
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Raine (Methodist)

543

28 October 1919

Bertie Charles Wilson
Nelly Mabel Allen

Bertie Charles Wilson
Nelly Mabel Allen
💍 1919/8030

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

29
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
35 years

St Peters Church Caversham

7557

28 October 1919

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

No	543
Date of Notice	28 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertie Charles Wilson	Nelly Mabel Allen
	💍 1919/8030
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	29	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	35 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Caversham
Folio	7557
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 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).