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 2800

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar [illegible]

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

3 March 1919

Thomas Richard Dodds Fitzgerald
Florence Annie Gertrude Wise

Thomas Richard Dodds Fitzgerald
Florence Annie Gertrude Wise
💍 1919/1989

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman

30
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
17 years

St. Martins Church, North East Valley.

1726

3 March 1919

N. A. Friberg, Church of England

No	76
Date of Notice	3 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Richard Dodds Fitzgerald	Florence Annie Gertrude Wise
	💍 1919/1989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Martins Church, North East Valley.
Folio	1726
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1919
Officiating Minister	N. A. Friberg, Church of England

3 March 1919

Reginald William Dancey
Frances Josephine Stapleton

Reginald William Darcey
Frances Josephine Stapleton
💍 1919/822

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

31
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 months
29 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.

673

3 March 1919

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic,

No	77
Date of Notice	3 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald William Dancey	Frances Josephine Stapleton
BDM Match (98%)	Reginald William Darcey	Frances Josephine Stapleton
	💍 1919/822
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 months	29 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.
Folio	673
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic,

3 March 1919

Patrick Sheehan
Mary Josephine Fitzgerald

Patrick Sheehan
Mary Josephine Fitzgerald
💍 1919/823

Paka Joseph Newton
Marie Josephine Fitzgerald
💍 1919/9611

Andrew Scott
Mary Josephine Fitzgerald
💍 1920/5506

Bachelor
Spinster

Law clerk

43
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
35 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.

674

3 March 1919

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic.

No	78
Date of Notice	3 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Sheehan	Mary Josephine Fitzgerald
	💍 1919/823
BDM Match (60%)	Paka Joseph Newton	Marie Josephine Fitzgerald
	💍 1919/9611
BDM Match (60%)	Andrew Scott	Mary Josephine Fitzgerald
	💍 1920/5506
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law clerk
Age	43	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	35 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin.
Folio	674
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1919
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic.

4 March 1919

Wilfred Ralph Andrews
Alma Lilias Le Fevre

Wilfred Ralph Andrews
Alma Lilias Le Fevre
💍 1919/824

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil servant

25
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
3 days

St. Matthews Church, Dunedin.

675

4 March 1919

W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

No	79
Date of Notice	4 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred Ralph Andrews	Alma Lilias Le Fevre
	💍 1919/824
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil servant
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Dunedin.
Folio	675
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1919
Officiating Minister	W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England

4 March 1919

Eugene Christmas Doyle Hay
Grace Brown Rae

Eugene Christmas Doyle Hay
Grace Brown Rae
💍 1919/832

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman quarryman

39
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
4 days

House of T. Rae, 15 Manchester Street, Roslyn.

676

4 March 1919

J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

No	80
Date of Notice	4 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eugene Christmas Doyle Hay	Grace Brown Rae
	💍 1919/832
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman quarryman
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	House of T. Rae, 15 Manchester Street, Roslyn.
Folio	676
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1919
Officiating Minister	J. J. Bates, 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).