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 2700

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar Leslie C. Bruce

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

151

15 December 1919

Martin Joseph Greelish
Maude Hooper

Martin Joseph Greelish
Maude Hooper
💍 1919/9482

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Waitress

23
19

Timaru
Timaru

9 days
9 days

Registrar's Office, Timaru

9246

C. H. Hooper, Father

19 December 1919

A. H. Oakey, Registrar

No	151
Date of Notice	15 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Joseph Greelish	Maude Hooper
	💍 1919/9482
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Waitress
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	9 days	9 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Timaru
Folio	9246
Consent	C. H. Hooper, Father
Date of Certificate	19 December 1919
Officiating Minister	A. H. Oakey, Registrar

152

22 December 1919

Stanley Victor Raines
Gertrude Beatrice Annand

Stanley Victor Raines
Gertrude Beatrice Annand
💍 1919/9483

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor
Domestic

27
32

Invercargill
Timaru

1 year
1 year

Chalmers Church, Timaru

9247

22 December 1919

Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

No	152
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Victor Raines	Gertrude Beatrice Annand
	💍 1919/9483
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor	Domestic
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Timaru
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Chalmers Church, Timaru
Folio	9247
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

153

22 December 1919

George Finlay Timewell
Margaret Grant

George Finlay Timewell
Margaret Grant
💍 1919/4677

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

29
28

Christchurch
Timaru

2 weeks
12 years

Chalmers Church, Timaru

9248

22 December 1919

Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

No	153
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Finlay Timewell	Margaret Grant
	💍 1919/4677
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Timaru
Length of Residence	2 weeks	12 years
Marriage Place	Chalmers Church, Timaru
Folio	9248
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

154

22 December 1919

John Morrison Toneycliffe
Evelyn Warden

John Morrison Toneycliffe
Evelyn Warden
💍 1919/4688

Bachelor
Spinster

Electric Linesman
Domestic

31
29

Timaru
Timaru

31 years
3 months

Residence of Mrs Riley, Coonor Street, Timaru

9249

22 December 1919

Rev. W. A. Hay, Methodist

No	154
Date of Notice	22 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Morrison Toneycliffe	Evelyn Warden
	💍 1919/4688
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electric Linesman	Domestic
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	31 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Riley, Coonor Street, Timaru
Folio	9249
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Hay, Methodist

155

23 December 1919

Thomas Henry Vincent McKeown
Janie Mary Roseingrave

Thomas Henry Vincent McKeown
Jaine Mary Roseingrave
💍 1919/4695

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Clerk

29
34

Wellington
Timaru

6 months
3 days

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

9250

23 December 1919

Rev. M. Maloney, Roman Catholic

No	155
Date of Notice	23 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Vincent McKeown	Janie Mary Roseingrave
BDM Match (95%)	Thomas Henry Vincent McKeown	Jaine Mary Roseingrave
	💍 1919/4695
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Clerk
Age	29	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Timaru
Length of Residence	6 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	9250
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Maloney, Roman Catholic

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).