Intentions to Marry, 1919 Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840487, 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.

1919g contains pages 2943-3338, covering districts from Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Page 3063

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar G. G. Chisholm

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 July 1919

David James Genge
Mary Evalina Painton

David James Genge
Mary Corrlinn Painter
💍 1919/4477

Bachelor
Spinster

farmer
Shop assistant

30
18

Oamaru
Oamaru

25 years
4 months

Church of Christ, Eden St. Oamaru

6358

Henry Painton father

3 July 1919

Rev Henry P. Leng, Church of Christ

No	32
Date of Notice	3 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David James Genge	Mary Evalina Painton
BDM Match (83%)	David James Genge	Mary Corrlinn Painter
	💍 1919/4477
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farmer	Shop assistant
Age	30	18
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	25 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Eden St. Oamaru
Folio	6358
Consent	Henry Painton father
Date of Certificate	3 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Henry P. Leng, Church of Christ

15 July 1919

James Douglas Paton
Isabella Meikle

James Douglas Paton
Isabella Meikle
💍 1919/4478

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

27
21

Pukeuri
Oamaru

27 years
21 years

Residence of Mrs Isabella Meikle, Rother Street, Oamaru

6359

15 July 1919

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	33
Date of Notice	15 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Douglas Paton	Isabella Meikle
	💍 1919/4478
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Pukeuri	Oamaru
Length of Residence	27 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Isabella Meikle, Rother Street, Oamaru
Folio	6359
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

22 July 1919

Alexander Orr
Catherine McDonald Don

Alexander Orr
Catherine McDonald Don
💍 1919/4455

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

27
30

Ngapara
Georgetown

27 years
30 years

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru

6360

22 July 1919

Rev. George William Hunt, Presbyterian

No	34
Date of Notice	22 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Orr	Catherine McDonald Don
	💍 1919/4455
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	27	30
Dwelling Place	Ngapara	Georgetown
Length of Residence	27 years	30 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru
Folio	6360
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. George William Hunt, Presbyterian

23 July 1919

Kenneth Ross
Alice Adams

Kenneth Ross
Alice Adams
💍 1919/4456

Bachelor
Spinster

farm Labourer
Domestic duties

26
30

Oamaru
Oamaru

10 days
15 years

Office of Registrar of Marriages Oamaru

6361

23 July 1919

G. G. Chisholm, Registrar

No	35
Date of Notice	23 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Ross	Alice Adams
	💍 1919/4456
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	farm Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	10 days	15 years
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
Folio	6361
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 July 1919
Officiating Minister	G. G. Chisholm, Registrar

29 July 1919

Donald Alexander Smith
Gertrude Margaret Needs

Donald Alexander Smith
Gertrude Margaret Needs
💍 1919/4457

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

43
33

Totara
Alma

13 years
15 years

Residence of William Needs, Alma

6362

29 July 1919

Rev. Alexander Watson, Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	29 July 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Alexander Smith	Gertrude Margaret Needs
	💍 1919/4457
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	43	33
Dwelling Place	Totara	Alma
Length of Residence	13 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Needs, Alma
Folio	6362
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alexander Watson, 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).