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 3219

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar F. G. 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

29 April 1919

Samuel North Bailey
Christina King

Samuel Noah Bailey
Mary Christina King
💍 1919/4860

Widower
Widow

Labourer
Domestic

39
40

Kennington
Kennington

9 years
1 year

Registrars Office, Invercargill

4032

29 April 1919

Registrar

No	75
Date of Notice	29 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel North Bailey	Christina King
BDM Match (82%)	Samuel Noah Bailey	Mary Christina King
	💍 1919/4860
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	39	40
Dwelling Place	Kennington	Kennington
Length of Residence	9 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Invercargill
Folio	4032
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

30 April 1919

Francis Joseph Hodge
Rebecca Duggan

Francis Joseph Hodge
Rebecca Duggan
💍 1919/4861

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Domestic

60
62

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office, Invercargill

4033

30 April 1919

Registrar

No	76
Date of Notice	30 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Joseph Hodge	Rebecca Duggan
	💍 1919/4861
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	60	62
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Invercargill
Folio	4033
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

30 April 1919

Arthur Lawton
Mary Elizabeth Scott

Arthur Lawton
Mary Elizabeth Scott
💍 1919/4862

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Waitress

23
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

23 years
4 years

Methodist Church, Elles Road, Invercargill

4034

30 April 1919

Rev. G. Clement, Methodist

No	77
Date of Notice	30 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lawton	Mary Elizabeth Scott
	💍 1919/4862
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Waitress
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	23 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Elles Road, Invercargill
Folio	4034
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Clement, Methodist

02 May 1919

Harry Vincent Helm
Beatrice Euphemia Smith

Harry Vincent Helm
Beatrice Euphemia Smith
💍 1919/4864

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee
Domestic

29
29

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 years
13 years

Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill

4035

02 May 1919

Rev. H. A. Sharp, Methodist

No	78
Date of Notice	02 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Vincent Helm	Beatrice Euphemia Smith
	💍 1919/4864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	Domestic
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	4035
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. A. Sharp, Methodist

05 May 1919

Christopher Henry Dawson
Ivy Sarah Peters

Christopher Henry Dawson
Ivy Sarah Peters
💍 1919/4865

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheese-maker
Home duties

25
21

Riverton
Harrington

25 years
21 years

Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill

4036

05 May 1919

Rev. H. A. Sharp, Methodist

No	79
Date of Notice	05 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Henry Dawson	Ivy Sarah Peters
	💍 1919/4865
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheese-maker	Home duties
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Riverton	Harrington
Length of Residence	25 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	4036
Consent
Date of Certificate	05 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. A. Sharp, Methodist

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).