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 2870

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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

409

19 August 1919

Edward Smith
Gertrude Adeline Wright

Edward Smith
Gertrude Adeline Wright
💍 1919/5236

Widower 28/2/16
Spinster

Farmer

56
40

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
2 weeks

Presbyterian Church, St. Kilda.

4547

19 August 1919

J. Miller, Presbyterian

No	409
Date of Notice	19 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Smith	Gertrude Adeline Wright
	💍 1919/5236
Condition	Widower 28/2/16	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	56	40
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, St. Kilda.
Folio	4547
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 August 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Miller, Presbyterian

410

20 August 1919

Erek Moen
Margaret Ann Arthur Thomson

Erek Moen
Margaret Ann Arthur Thomson
💍 1919/5237

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 months
7 years

St. Matthews Church, Dunedin

4548

20 August 1919

W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

No	410
Date of Notice	20 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Erek Moen	Margaret Ann Arthur Thomson
	💍 1919/5237
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 months	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Dunedin
Folio	4548
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 August 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

411

22 August 1919

Walter Baron Norman
Jessie Alice Johnston

Walter Barron Norman
Jessie Alice Johnston
💍 1919/5238

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

22
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
22 years

Presbyterian Manse, Young Street, St. Kilda.

4549

22 August 1919

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	411
Date of Notice	22 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Baron Norman	Jessie Alice Johnston
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Barron Norman	Jessie Alice Johnston
	💍 1919/5238
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Young Street, St. Kilda.
Folio	4549
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

412

22 August 1919

Henry Anderson
Margaret Clements

Henry Anderson
Margaret Clements
💍 1919/5275

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

31
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
15 years

St. Martins Church, North East Valley.

4550

22 August 1919

N. A. Friberg, Church of England

No	412
Date of Notice	22 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Anderson	Margaret Clements
	💍 1919/5275
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Martins Church, North East Valley.
Folio	4550
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1919
Officiating Minister	N. A. Friberg, Church of England

413

22 August 1919

Harold Davies
Ida May Goatham

Harold Davies
Ida May Goatham
💍 1919/7051

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

19
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

19 years
1 year

House of G. Goatham, 6 Ferguson Street, Caversham.

6548

J. Davies (Father)

22 August 1919

C. Eaton, Methodist

No	413
Date of Notice	22 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Davies	Ida May Goatham
	💍 1919/7051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	19	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	19 years	1 year
Marriage Place	House of G. Goatham, 6 Ferguson Street, Caversham.
Folio	6548
Consent	J. Davies (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 August 1919
Officiating Minister	C. Eaton, Methodist

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).