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 2808

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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

116

26 March 1919

George Edmund Collett
Evelyn Bell

George Edmund Collett
Evelyn Bell
💍 1919/877

Bachelor
Spinster

Soapmaker

27
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

705

A.A.A. Bell (Father)

26 March 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	116
Date of Notice	26 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Edmund Collett	Evelyn Bell
	💍 1919/877
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soapmaker
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	705
Consent	A.A.A. Bell (Father)
Date of Certificate	26 March 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

117

27 March 1919

Henry Charles Miller
Muriel Gertrude Ada Sparrow

Henry Charles Miller
Muriel Gertrude Ada Sparrow
💍 1919/878

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

38
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
28 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

706

27 March 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	117
Date of Notice	27 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Charles Miller	Muriel Gertrude Ada Sparrow
	💍 1919/878
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	706
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

118

27 March 1919

William James Strong
Florence Lilian Schock

William James Strong
Florence Lilian Schoek
💍 1919/879

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

30
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 years
5 months

Methodist Manse, 36 Brighton Street, Roslyn

707

27 March 1919

W. J. Oxbrow, Methodist

No	118
Date of Notice	27 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Strong	Florence Lilian Schock
BDM Match (98%)	William James Strong	Florence Lilian Schoek
	💍 1919/879
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 years	5 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, 36 Brighton Street, Roslyn
Folio	707
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1919
Officiating Minister	W. J. Oxbrow, Methodist

119

27 March 1919

Alan Burns Macalister
Margaret Bruce Peterson

Alan Burns Macalister
Margaret Bruce Peterson
💍 1919/1918

Bachelor
Spinster

Law clerk

24
21

Invercargill
West Harbour

24 years
21 years

First Church Dunedin

1699

27 March 1919

A. Gray, Presbyterian

No	119
Date of Notice	27 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alan Burns Macalister	Margaret Bruce Peterson
	💍 1919/1918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law clerk
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	West Harbour
Length of Residence	24 years	21 years
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	1699
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1919
Officiating Minister	A. Gray, Presbyterian

120

31 March 1919

Harold Wyatt
Elizabeth Jane Rainham

Harold Wyatt
Elizabeth Jane Rainham
💍 1919/1919

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram conductor

24
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 years
7 years

Presbyterian Manse, Mornington

1700

31 March 1919

W. Trotter, Presbyterian

No	120
Date of Notice	31 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Wyatt	Elizabeth Jane Rainham
	💍 1919/1919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram conductor
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Mornington
Folio	1700
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 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).