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 3247

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 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

208

10 November 1919

Jabez Lyon
Margaret Hope Chisholm

Jabez Lyons
Margaret Hope Chisholm
💍 1919/9791

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee
Home duties

26
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

26 years
3 days

Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill

9410

10 November 1919

Rev. S. Clement

No	208
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jabez Lyon	Margaret Hope Chisholm
BDM Match (95%)	Jabez Lyons	Margaret Hope Chisholm
	💍 1919/9791
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee	Home duties
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	26 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	9410
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Clement

209

10 November 1919

Anthony Hall
Ruth Violet Worker

Anthony Hall
Ruth Violet Winter
💍 1919/9792

Bachelor
Spinster

Furnace man
Domestic

21
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

13 years
7 years

Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill

9411

Earnest C. Worker, Father

10 November 1919

Rev. H. W. Burridge

No	209
Date of Notice	10 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Anthony Hall	Ruth Violet Worker
BDM Match (92%)	Anthony Hall	Ruth Violet Winter
	💍 1919/9792
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Furnace man	Domestic
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	13 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	9411
Consent	Earnest C. Worker, Father
Date of Certificate	10 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge

210

11 November 1919

William Blake Cox
Annie Doris Sloan

William Blake Cox
Annie Downie Stewart
💍 1919/9793

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School teacher

29
27

South Hillend
Invercargill

5 months
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill

9412

11 November 1919

Rev. H. W. Burridge

No	210
Date of Notice	11 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Blake Cox	Annie Doris Sloan
BDM Match (80%)	William Blake Cox	Annie Downie Stewart
	💍 1919/9793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School teacher
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	South Hillend	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	9412
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge

211

11 November 1919

Albert Henry Cook
Catherine Ada Sloan

Albert Henry Cook
Catherine Ada Swain
💍 1919/9794

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman
Domestic

33
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 month
1 month

Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill

9413

11 November 1919

Rev. H. W. Burridge

No	211
Date of Notice	11 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Henry Cook	Catherine Ada Sloan
BDM Match (92%)	Albert Henry Cook	Catherine Ada Swain
	💍 1919/9794
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman	Domestic
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	9413
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge

212

12 November 1919

Robert John Andrew Maxwell Ogren
Eliza Oliver Scott

Robert John Andrew Maxwell Ogren
Eliza Oliver Scott
💍 1919/9795

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

25
36

Wallacetown
Wallacetown

4 years
36 years

Residence of Colin Gray, Wallacetown

9414

12 November 1919

Rev. J. S. Ponder

No	212
Date of Notice	12 November 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert John Andrew Maxwell Ogren	Eliza Oliver Scott
	💍 1919/9795
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	25	36
Dwelling Place	Wallacetown	Wallacetown
Length of Residence	4 years	36 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Colin Gray, Wallacetown
Folio	9414
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 November 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. S. Ponder

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).