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 2802

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

10 March 1919

John Strachan Henderson
Minnie Thomas

John Strachan Henderson
Minnie Thomas
💍 1919/851

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

26
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
30 years

House of Mrs. H. Thomas, 147 Oxford Street, South Dunedin

681

10 March 1919

J. R. Nelson, Presbyterian

No	86
Date of Notice	10 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Strachan Henderson	Minnie Thomas
	💍 1919/851
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	30 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. H. Thomas, 147 Oxford Street, South Dunedin
Folio	681
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1919
Officiating Minister	J. R. Nelson, Presbyterian

11 March 1919

Harold Laurenson Hamilton
Florence Mary Ackroyd

Harold Laurenson Familton
Florence Mary Ackroyd
💍 1919/852

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

35
31

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
31 years

House of Mrs A. Ackroyd, 39 Moray Place, Dunedin.

682

11 March 1919

W. A. Hay, Methodist

No	87
Date of Notice	11 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Laurenson Hamilton	Florence Mary Ackroyd
BDM Match (98%)	Harold Laurenson Familton	Florence Mary Ackroyd
	💍 1919/852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	35	31
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	31 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs A. Ackroyd, 39 Moray Place, Dunedin.
Folio	682
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1919
Officiating Minister	W. A. Hay, Methodist

11 March 1919

Richard Lucas Lucas
Grace Anderson

Richard Lucas Lucas
Grace Anderson
💍 1919/853

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

52
39

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
7 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

683

11 March 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

No	88
Date of Notice	11 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Lucas Lucas	Grace Anderson
	💍 1919/853
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	52	39
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	683
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

12 March 1919

Bernard Smith
Maud Lilly Fraser

Bernard Smith
Maud Lilly Fraser
💍 1919/854

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

33
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 months
12 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.

684

12 March 1919

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

No	89
Date of Notice	12 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard Smith	Maud Lilly Fraser
	💍 1919/854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	33	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 months	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.
Folio	684
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

12 March 1919

Joseph Craig
Margaret Morton

Joseph Craig
Margaret Morton
💍 1919/833

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
1 year

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

685

12 March 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar.

No	90
Date of Notice	12 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Craig	Margaret Morton
	💍 1919/833
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	685
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 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).