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 2842

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

278

14 June 1919

Robert Dunnet Sutherland
Mary Christie Hercus

Robert Dunnet Sutherland
Mary Christie Hercus
💍 1919/2935

Widower 17 July 1917
Spinster

Draper
Domestic science teacher

53
46

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
46 years

House of Mr. G. R. Hercus, 20 Albert Street, Dunedin.

2794

14 June 1919

R. E. Davies, Presbyterian.

No	278
Date of Notice	14 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Dunnet Sutherland	Mary Christie Hercus
	💍 1919/2935
Condition	Widower 17 July 1917	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic science teacher
Age	53	46
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	46 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. G. R. Hercus, 20 Albert Street, Dunedin.
Folio	2794
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1919
Officiating Minister	R. E. Davies, Presbyterian.

279

14 June 1919

Stanley Kingston
Maude Evelyn Reed

Stanley Kingston
Maude Evelyn Reed
💍 1919/2937

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

32
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 days
32 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin.

2795

14 June 1919

A. R. Pratt, Methodist.

No	279
Date of Notice	14 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Kingston	Maude Evelyn Reed
	💍 1919/2937
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 days	32 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin.
Folio	2795
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Pratt, Methodist.

280

16 June 1919

Robert Stanley Weir
Lilias Jeanie Fairbairn

Robert Stanley Weir
Lilias Jeanie Fairbairn
💍 1919/2938

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
9 months

Presbyterian Church, Andersons Bay.

2796

16 June 1919

G. McDonald, Presbyterian.

No	280
Date of Notice	16 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Stanley Weir	Lilias Jeanie Fairbairn
	💍 1919/2938
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	9 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Andersons Bay.
Folio	2796
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1919
Officiating Minister	G. McDonald, Presbyterian.

281

16 June 1919

Thomas Clark Huston
Elizabeth Stephens

Thomas Clark Huston
Elizabeth Stephens
💍 1919/2939

Widower 7 March 1909
Widow 4 March 1909

Locomotive foreman

56
57

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
1 month

Residence of Mrs. Hercombe, 16 Carr Street, Dunedin.

2797

16 June 1919

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian.

No	281
Date of Notice	16 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Clark Huston	Elizabeth Stephens
	💍 1919/2939
Condition	Widower 7 March 1909	Widow 4 March 1909
Profession	Locomotive foreman
Age	56	57
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Hercombe, 16 Carr Street, Dunedin.
Folio	2797
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1919
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, Presbyterian.

282

16 June 1919

Owen Tallon
Esther Olive Fleming

Owen Tallon
Esther Olive Fleming
💍 1919/2940

Bachelor
Divorced Dec. Absolute 17 December 1913

Shepherd

40
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
1 week

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

2798

16 June 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

No	282
Date of Notice	16 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Owen Tallon	Esther Olive Fleming
	💍 1919/2940
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Dec. Absolute 17 December 1913
Profession	Shepherd
Age	40	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	2798
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting 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).