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 2894

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar A.W. Gladstone

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

529

21 October 1919

Alfred Ernest Cotton
Ida Isabella Key known as Chammen

Alfred Ernest Cotton
Ida Isabella Chammen
💍 1919/7943

Bachelor
Spinster

Yarn Spinner

23
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
Life

First Church Dunedin

7544

Claude Charles Chammen (Guardian)

21 October 1919

Rev. G.H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

No	529
Date of Notice	21 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Ernest Cotton	Ida Isabella Key known as Chammen
BDM Match (80%)	Alfred Ernest Cotton	Ida Isabella Chammen
	💍 1919/7943
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Yarn Spinner
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	Life
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	7544
Consent	Claude Charles Chammen (Guardian)
Date of Certificate	21 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G.H. Balfour (Presbyterian)

530

22 October 1919

Donald Evander George MacKay
Jean Veitch

Donald Evander George Mackay
Jean Veitch
💍 1919/7945

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance agent

23
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
5 years

First Church Dunedin

7545

John Veitch (Father)

22 October 1919

Rev. R.S. Watson (Presbyterian)

No	530
Date of Notice	22 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Evander George MacKay	Jean Veitch
BDM Match (98%)	Donald Evander George Mackay	Jean Veitch
	💍 1919/7945
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance agent
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	7545
Consent	John Veitch (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. R.S. Watson (Presbyterian)

531

22 October 1919

George Constantine Dodd
Muriel Gladys Plummer

George Constindine Dodd
Muriel Gladys Plummer
💍 1919/7946

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

27
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

17 years
12 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

7546

22 October 1919

Rev. F.V. Fisher (Church of England)

No	531
Date of Notice	22 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Constantine Dodd	Muriel Gladys Plummer
BDM Match (96%)	George Constindine Dodd	Muriel Gladys Plummer
	💍 1919/7946
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	17 years	12 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	7546
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F.V. Fisher (Church of England)

532

22 October 1919

John William Garnett
Hughina Nye

John William Garnett
Hughina Nye
💍 1919/7947

Bachelor
Spinster

Locomotive Fitter

33
31

St Kilda
Green Island

6 months
30 years

House of R Nye St Andrew Street Green Island

7547

22 October 1919

Rev. S.J. Cooper (Church of England)

No	532
Date of Notice	22 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Garnett	Hughina Nye
	💍 1919/7947
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Locomotive Fitter
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	St Kilda	Green Island
Length of Residence	6 months	30 years
Marriage Place	House of R Nye St Andrew Street Green Island
Folio	7547
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 October 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S.J. Cooper (Church of England)

533

23 October 1919

Leslie Neil Galbraith
Celia Ann Coombe

Leslie Neil Galbraith
Celia Ann Coombe
💍 1919/7948

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 weeks
5 days

Registrar's Office Dunedin

7548

23 October 1919

A.R. Kennedy Registrar

No	533
Date of Notice	23 October 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Neil Galbraith	Celia Ann Coombe
	💍 1919/7948
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 weeks	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Dunedin
Folio	7548
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 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).