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 3207

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar J. H. Peter

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 February 1919

George Henry Brown
Vera Ethel Ann Legat

George Henry Brown
Vera Ethel Ann Legge
💍 1919/1857

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist
Milliner

31
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
22 years

Presbyterian Church Invercargill

1614

3 February 1919

Rev. H. G. Burridge

No	21
Date of Notice	3 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Brown	Vera Ethel Ann Legat
BDM Match (95%)	George Henry Brown	Vera Ethel Ann Legge
	💍 1919/1857
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist	Milliner
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Invercargill
Folio	1614
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Burridge

6 February 1919

John Perry
Evelyn McQuarrie

John Perry
Evelyn McQuarrie
💍 1919/1858

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorman
Tailoress

28
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
21 years

Presbyterian Church Ness St. Invercargill

1615

6 February 1919

Rev J. Collie

No	22
Date of Notice	6 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Perry	Evelyn McQuarrie
	💍 1919/1858
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorman	Tailoress
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Ness St. Invercargill
Folio	1615
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Collie

11 February 1919

Duncan McRae
Nellie McKenzie

Duncan McRae
Nellie McKenzie
💍 1919/1859

Bachelor
Spinster

Post & Telegraph Clerk
Schoolteacher

29
28

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 days
6 months

Presbyterian Church Invercargill

1616

11 February 1919

Rev H. G. Burridge

No	23
Date of Notice	11 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan McRae	Nellie McKenzie
	💍 1919/1859
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Post & Telegraph Clerk	Schoolteacher
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Invercargill
Folio	1616
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev H. G. Burridge

13 February 1919

Bain Challis
Ethel Rose Pallett

Bain Challis
Ethel Rose Pallett
💍 1919/1860

Widower 19-4-18
Spinster

Engine driver
Domestic

39
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 years
2 years

Methodist Church Leet St. Invercargill

1617

13 February 1919

Rev A. Peters

No	24
Date of Notice	13 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bain Challis	Ethel Rose Pallett
	💍 1919/1860
Condition	Widower 19-4-18	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver	Domestic
Age	39	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Leet St. Invercargill
Folio	1617
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Peters

21 February 1919

Cyril Leslie Rice
Muriel Adele Rose Kingsland

Cyril Leslie Rice
Muriel Adele Rose Kingsland
💍 1919/1861

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

23
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

23 years
23 years

English Church Tay St. Invercargill

1618

21 February 1919

Rev Archie Richards

No	25
Date of Notice	21 February 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Leslie Rice	Muriel Adele Rose Kingsland
	💍 1919/1861
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	23 years	23 years
Marriage Place	English Church Tay St. Invercargill
Folio	1618
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Archie Richards

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).