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 2796

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

17 February 1919

Thomas McGregor
Jane Bell Mercer

Thomas McGregor
Jane Bell Mercer
💍 1919/825

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

40
38

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 yrs.
38 yrs.

St. Andrews Church, Dunedin.

653

17 February 1919

R. Waddell, Presbyterian

No	56
Date of Notice	17 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas McGregor	Jane Bell Mercer
	💍 1919/825
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	40	38
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 yrs.	38 yrs.
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Dunedin.
Folio	653
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1919
Officiating Minister	R. Waddell, Presbyterian

18 February 1919

Andrew Williamson Crichton
Roberta Maude Francis

Andrew Williamson Crichton
Roberta Maude Francis
💍 1919/826

Widower
Spinster

Engineer

43
33

Dunedin
St. Kilda

43 yrs.
33 yrs.

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

654

18 February 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	57
Date of Notice	18 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Williamson Crichton	Roberta Maude Francis
	💍 1919/826
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	43	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	St. Kilda
Length of Residence	43 yrs.	33 yrs.
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	654
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

18 February 1919

Allan Richmond Cockerell
Gladys Brown

Allan Richmond Cockerell
Gladys Brown
💍 1919/827

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

27
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 mths.
24 yrs.

Methodist Church, Caversham

655

18 February 1919

S. Griffith, Methodist

No	58
Date of Notice	18 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Richmond Cockerell	Gladys Brown
	💍 1919/827
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 mths.	24 yrs.
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Caversham
Folio	655
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1919
Officiating Minister	S. Griffith, Methodist

19 February 1919

George Ernest Patterson
Edith Anne Sanders

George Ernest Patterson
Edith Anne Sanders
💍 1919/828

Widower
Widow

Railway employee

35
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

35 yrs.
35 yrs.

Registrar's Office, Dunedin.

656

19 February 1919

H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

No	59
Date of Notice	19 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ernest Patterson	Edith Anne Sanders
	💍 1919/828
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Railway employee
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	35 yrs.	35 yrs.
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin.
Folio	656
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1919
Officiating Minister	H. Maxwell, Acting Registrar

20 February 1919

Alexander Gordon Anderson Horn
Marion Dickson Emmerson

Alexander Gordon Anderson Horn
Marion Dickson Emmerson
💍 1919/829

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

28
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 dys.
20 yrs.

Presbyterian Church, Caversham.

657

20 February 1919

D. Dutton, Presbyterian

No	60
Date of Notice	20 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Gordon Anderson Horn	Marion Dickson Emmerson
	💍 1919/829
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 dys.	20 yrs.
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Caversham.
Folio	657
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1919
Officiating Minister	D. Dutton, 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).