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 2846

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar H. Maxwell

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

298

25 June 1919

Charles Joseph Meade
Alice Mary Clarke

Charles Joseph Meade
Alice Mary Clarke
💍 1919/3005

Charles Edward Smith
Elsie Mary Clarke
💍 1919/3278

Widower 27 August 1910
Widow 1 January 1913

Contractor

48
47

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
10 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

2814

25 June 1919

J. Coffey Roman Catholic.

No	298
Date of Notice	25 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Joseph Meade	Alice Mary Clarke
	💍 1919/3005
BDM Match (64%)	Charles Edward Smith	Elsie Mary Clarke
	💍 1919/3278
Condition	Widower 27 August 1910	Widow 1 January 1913
Profession	Contractor
Age	48	47
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	2814
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey Roman Catholic.

299

25 June 1919

Walter Henry Woods
Mary Kelly

Walter Henry Woods
Mary Kelly
💍 1919/3006

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

2815

25 June 1919

H. Maxwell Acting Registrar.

No	299
Date of Notice	25 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Henry Woods	Mary Kelly
	💍 1919/3006
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	2815
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell Acting Registrar.

300

26 June 1919

Thomas Arthur Moore Anderson
Irene Ada Mason

Thomas Arthur Moore Anderson
Irene Ada Mason
💍 1919/3007

Bachelor
Spinster

Linesman

31
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

31 years
10 years

House of W. H. Mason, 436 King Street, Dunedin.

2816

W. H. Mason (father)

26 June 1919

A. H. Wallace Congregational.

No	300
Date of Notice	26 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Arthur Moore Anderson	Irene Ada Mason
	💍 1919/3007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linesman
Age	31	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	10 years
Marriage Place	House of W. H. Mason, 436 King Street, Dunedin.
Folio	2816
Consent	W. H. Mason (father)
Date of Certificate	26 June 1919
Officiating Minister	A. H. Wallace Congregational.

301

26 June 1919

Donald Cormack
Harriet Marie Patterson

Donald Cormack
Harriet Marie Patterson
💍 1919/3008

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

43
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

35 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church, Queens Drive, St. Kilda.

2817

26 June 1919

R. S. Allan Presbyterian.

No	301
Date of Notice	26 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Cormack	Harriet Marie Patterson
	💍 1919/3008
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	43	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	35 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Queens Drive, St. Kilda.
Folio	2817
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1919
Officiating Minister	R. S. Allan Presbyterian.

302

26 June 1919

John McKellar
Ann Duncan

John McKellar
Ann Duncan
💍 1919/3009

John Timothy Davern
Annie Duncan
💍 1919/3874

Divorced Decree Absolute 19 March 1919
Spinster

Shepherd

51
49

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
10 years

Residence of Mr. W. McLennan, 69 Maitland Street, Dunedin.

2818

26 June 1919

J. Kilpatrick Presbyterian.

No	302
Date of Notice	26 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McKellar	Ann Duncan
	💍 1919/3009
BDM Match (60%)	John Timothy Davern	Annie Duncan
	💍 1919/3874
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 19 March 1919	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	51	49
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. McLennan, 69 Maitland Street, Dunedin.
Folio	2818
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick Presbyterian.

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).