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 2826

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar 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

198

28 April 1919

John Stuart McKechnie
Margaret Logan Simpson

John Stuart McKechnie
Margaret Logan Simpson
💍 1919/2886

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

29
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
4 years

House of T.C. Ross, Claremont Street, Roslyn.

2720

28 April 1919

H. H. Barton, Presbyterian,

No	198
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stuart McKechnie	Margaret Logan Simpson
	💍 1919/2886
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	House of T.C. Ross, Claremont Street, Roslyn.
Folio	2720
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	H. H. Barton, Presbyterian,

199

28 April 1919

John Hole Davis
Margaret Riley

John Hole Davis
Margaret Riley
💍 1919/2887

Richard Alfred Thaine
Margaret Riley
💍 1919/3729

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
22

Dunedin
St. Kilda

3 days
22 years

Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin

2721

28 April 1919

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian.

No	199
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hole Davis	Margaret Riley
	💍 1919/2887
BDM Match (62%)	Richard Alfred Thaine	Margaret Riley
	💍 1919/3729
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St. Kilda
Length of Residence	3 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin
Folio	2721
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian.

200

28 April 1919

Francis Vivian Fisher
Enid Fanny Hertslet Fulton

Francis Vivian Fisher
Enid Fanny Hartslet Fulton
💍 1919/2889

Bachelor
Spinster

Priest

32
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
25 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin.

2722

28 April 1919

A. R. Fitchett, Church of England

No	200
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Vivian Fisher	Enid Fanny Hertslet Fulton
BDM Match (98%)	Francis Vivian Fisher	Enid Fanny Hartslet Fulton
	💍 1919/2889
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Priest
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	25 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin.
Folio	2722
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	A. R. Fitchett, Church of England

201

29 April 1919

Horace James Hartley
Elizabeth Marjory Pollock

Horace James Hartley
Elizabeth Marjory Pollock
💍 1919/2890

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
5 years

First Church, Dunedin.

2723

29 April 1919

G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian,

No	201
Date of Notice	29 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace James Hartley	Elizabeth Marjory Pollock
	💍 1919/2890
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	5 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin.
Folio	2723
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1919
Officiating Minister	G. H. Balfour, Presbyterian,

202

01 May 1919

Leonard Wilfred Gribben
Vina May Murray

Leonard Wilfred Gribben
Vina May Murray
💍 1919/2891

Thomas Alfred Crabbe
Alice Mary Murray
💍 1920/2559

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram conductor

21
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
6 years

Presbyterian Church, Mornington.

2724

01 May 1919

W. Trotter, Presbyterian,

No	202
Date of Notice	01 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Wilfred Gribben	Vina May Murray
	💍 1919/2891
BDM Match (64%)	Thomas Alfred Crabbe	Alice Mary Murray
	💍 1920/2559
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram conductor
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Mornington.
Folio	2724
Consent
Date of Certificate	01 May 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Trotter, 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).