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 2680

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar J. McKittrick

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

18 June 1919

James Neil McLeod
Kathleen McGillen

James Neil McLeod
Kathleen McGillen
💍 1919/4705

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
General Servant

23
22

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Timaru

3937

18 June 1919

J. McKittrick, Registrar

No	65
Date of Notice	18 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Neil McLeod	Kathleen McGillen
	💍 1919/4705
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	General Servant
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Timaru
Folio	3937
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 June 1919
Officiating Minister	J. McKittrick, Registrar

23 June 1919

Lawrence Cecil Thoumine
Eva Myrtle Good

Lawrence Cecil Thoumine
Eva Myrtle Good
💍 1919/4706

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
19

Timaru
Timaru

4 days
4 days

Congregational Church North Street Timaru

3938

Clara Good (Mother)

23 June 1919

Rev. T. W. Potts, Congregationalist

No	66
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence Cecil Thoumine	Eva Myrtle Good
	💍 1919/4706
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Congregational Church North Street Timaru
Folio	3938
Consent	Clara Good (Mother)
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. W. Potts, Congregationalist

23 June 1919

Hodson Alfred Leopold
Frances Roberta Wells

Hodson Alfred Leopold
Frances Roberta Wells
💍 1919/4707

Bachelor
Spinster

Porter N.Z. Railway
Domestic

21
20

Timaru
Timaru

17 years
3 years

St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru

3939

Robert Alfred Wells (Father)

26 June 1919

Rev. F. H. Thorpe, Church of England

No	67
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hodson Alfred Leopold	Frances Roberta Wells
	💍 1919/4707
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Porter N.Z. Railway	Domestic
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	17 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru
Folio	3939
Consent	Robert Alfred Wells (Father)
Date of Certificate	26 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. H. Thorpe, Church of England

23 June 1919

Daniel Charles Morse
Betty Husband

Daniel Charles Morse
Betty Husband
💍 1919/4708

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic

21
20

Pareora
Pareora

4 years
18 years

St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru

3940

William Henry Husband (Father)

23 June 1919

Rev. J. H. Rogers, Anglican

No	68
Date of Notice	23 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Charles Morse	Betty Husband
	💍 1919/4708
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Pareora	Pareora
Length of Residence	4 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru
Folio	3940
Consent	William Henry Husband (Father)
Date of Certificate	23 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Rogers, Anglican

28 June 1919

John Bainbridge Drake
Mary Isabel Coupland

John Bainbridge Drake
Mary Isabel Coupland
💍 1919/4709

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

27
27

Otipua
Otipua

3 days
27 years

St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru

3941

28 June 1919

Rev. J. H. Rogers, Anglican

No	69
Date of Notice	28 June 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bainbridge Drake	Mary Isabel Coupland
	💍 1919/4709
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Otipua	Otipua
Length of Residence	3 days	27 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Anglican Church Timaru
Folio	3941
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Rogers, Anglican

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).