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 3271

District of Mataura Quarter ending 30 September 1919 Registrar R. J. Shaw

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

4 August 1919

Andrew McDougall
Alice Humphries

Andrew McDougall
Alice Humphries
💍 1919/6976

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheese Maker
Domestic Duties

23
23

Mataura
Mataura

10 days
9 years

House belonging to Mr Humphries at Mataura

6487

4 August 1919

G. D. Vercoe, Church of Christ

No	8
Date of Notice	4 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew McDougall	Alice Humphries
	💍 1919/6976
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheese Maker	Domestic Duties
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	10 days	9 years
Marriage Place	House belonging to Mr Humphries at Mataura
Folio	6487
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 August 1919
Officiating Minister	G. D. Vercoe, Church of Christ

9 August 1919

Frank Cook Mitchell
Elizabeth Oughton

Francis Cork Mitchell
Elizabeth Oughton
💍 1919/6977

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

29
30

Mataura
Mataura

29 years
30 years

Dwelling place of John Oughton Mataura

6488

9 August 1919

W. W. Brown, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	9 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Cook Mitchell	Elizabeth Oughton
BDM Match (91%)	Francis Cork Mitchell	Elizabeth Oughton
	💍 1919/6977
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	29 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling place of John Oughton Mataura
Folio	6488
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 August 1919
Officiating Minister	W. W. Brown, Presbyterian

27 August 1919

George Frederick Foulston
Sarah Olive Ann Barber

George Frederick Foulston
Sarah Olive Annie Barber
💍 1919/6978

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
24

Waimumu
Waimumu

3 days
24 years

Public Hall Waimumu

6489

27 August 1919

W. A. Hamblett, Anglican

No	10
Date of Notice	27 August 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Frederick Foulston	Sarah Olive Ann Barber
BDM Match (96%)	George Frederick Foulston	Sarah Olive Annie Barber
	💍 1919/6978
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Waimumu	Waimumu
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	Public Hall Waimumu
Folio	6489
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1919
Officiating Minister	W. A. Hamblett, Anglican

9 September 1919

James Wilson
Isabella Watt

James Wilson
Isabella Watt
💍 1919/6979

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
22

Mataura
Mataura

3 days
1½ years

Presbyterian Church Mataura

6490

9 September 1919

J. M. Simpson, Presbyterian

No	11
Date of Notice	9 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Wilson	Isabella Watt
	💍 1919/6979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	3 days	1½ years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Mataura
Folio	6490
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1919
Officiating Minister	J. M. Simpson, Presbyterian

9 September 1919

Robert Benjamin Porter
Margaret Agnes White

Robert Benjamin Porter
Margaret Agnes White
💍 1919/6980

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman
Paper Mill Employee

24
20

Mataura
Mataura

4 years
8 years

Roman Catholic Church Mataura

6491

William White, Father

9 September 1919

Father O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	12
Date of Notice	9 September 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Benjamin Porter	Margaret Agnes White
	💍 1919/6980
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman	Paper Mill Employee
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Mataura	Mataura
Length of Residence	4 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Mataura
Folio	6491
Consent	William White, Father
Date of Certificate	9 September 1919
Officiating Minister	Father O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

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).