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 3255

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1919 Registrar F. G. Pellis

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

248

12 December 1919

Harold Leveston Cooper
Evelyn Lilian Reese Myron

Harold Leverton Cooper
Evelyn Lilas Bessie Myers
💍 1919/9656

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Home duties

31
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

11 months
23 years

Presbyterian Church, Leet St, Invercargill

9448

12 December 1919

Rev. H. G. Robinson, Presbyterian

No	248
Date of Notice	12 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Leveston Cooper	Evelyn Lilian Reese Myron
BDM Match (82%)	Harold Leverton Cooper	Evelyn Lilas Bessie Myers
	💍 1919/9656
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Home duties
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	11 months	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Leet St, Invercargill
Folio	9448
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Robinson, Presbyterian

249

17 December 1919

Frederick Walter Cole
Mignonette Buttolph

Frederick Walter Cole
Mignonette Buttolph
💍 1919/9664

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Home duties

45
37

Invercargill
Invercargill

11 years
7 years

Presbyterian Church, Leet St, Invercargill

9449

17 December 1919

Rev. H. G. Robinson, Presbyterian

No	249
Date of Notice	17 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter Cole	Mignonette Buttolph
	💍 1919/9664
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Home duties
Age	45	37
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	11 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Leet St, Invercargill
Folio	9449
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Robinson, Presbyterian

250

18 December 1919

Stanley Vivian Raines
Gertrude Beatrice Annand

Stanley Victor Raines
Gertrude Beatrice Annand
💍 1919/9483

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor
Domestic

27
32

Invercargill
Timaru

1 year
1 year

Presbyterian Church, Timaru

9247

MN 152 Timaru

18 December 1919

Rev. E. H. Harris, Presbyterian

No	250
Date of Notice	18 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Vivian Raines	Gertrude Beatrice Annand
BDM Match (91%)	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	Presbyterian Church, Timaru
Folio	9247
Consent	MN 152 Timaru
Date of Certificate	18 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. H. Harris, Presbyterian

251

18 December 1919

Leonard Mornington Faircloth
Teura May McLaren

Leonard Mornington Faircloth
Teresa May McLaren
💍 1919/9675

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Civil Servant

27
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
27 years

Roman Catholic Church, Tyne St, Invercargill

9450

18 December 1919

Rev. W. N. Woods, Roman Catholic

No	251
Date of Notice	18 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Mornington Faircloth	Teura May McLaren
BDM Match (92%)	Leonard Mornington Faircloth	Teresa May McLaren
	💍 1919/9675
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Civil Servant
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Tyne St, Invercargill
Folio	9450
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. N. Woods, Roman Catholic

252

20 December 1919

William Goldie Murphy
Lou Mary Ruby Eveline Phillipson

William Goldie Murphy
Rose Mary Ruby Evelyn Phillipson
💍 1919/9682

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

23
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

19 years
23 years

Residence of Jas Phillipson, 172 Spey St, Invercargill

9451

20 December 1919

Rev. H. G. Robinson, Presbyterian

No	252
Date of Notice	20 December 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Goldie Murphy	Lou Mary Ruby Eveline Phillipson
BDM Match (92%)	William Goldie Murphy	Rose Mary Ruby Evelyn Phillipson
	💍 1919/9682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	19 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Jas Phillipson, 172 Spey St, Invercargill
Folio	9451
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 December 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Robinson, 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).