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 3301

District of Riverton Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar Walter Abbott Thomson

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

5/19

7 April 1919

Frederick Wright
Sarah Martha Mackay

Frederick Wright
Sarah Martha McKay
💍 1919/4910

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller
Domestic Duties

27
31

Tihaka
Tihaka

6 months
20 years

Residence of Mrs Jno McKay, Tihaka

4142

7 April 1919

Rev Jno Field

No	5/19
Date of Notice	7 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Wright	Sarah Martha Mackay
BDM Match (95%)	Frederick Wright	Sarah Martha McKay
	💍 1919/4910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller	Domestic Duties
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Tihaka	Tihaka
Length of Residence	6 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Jno McKay, Tihaka
Folio	4142
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Jno Field

6/19

22 April 1919

William Alexander Stevenson
Annie Elizabeth Helm

William Alexander Stevenson
Annie Elizabeth Helm
💍 1919/4911

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

29
26

Balclutha
Riverton

3 days
6 years

Presbyterian Church, Riverton

4143

22 April 1919

Rev C A Gray

No	6/19
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander Stevenson	Annie Elizabeth Helm
	💍 1919/4911
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Balclutha	Riverton
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Riverton
Folio	4143
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev C A Gray

7/19

28 April 1919

Thomas Barker
Lilian May Parkes

Thomas Baxter
Lillian May Parkes
💍 1919/4912

Thomas Brown
Alice Maud Parkes
💍 1919/8813

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

35
22

Riverton
Riverton

35 years
2 months

Residence of Mrs Jno Barker, Riverton

4144

28 April 1919

Rev Jno Field

No	7/19
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Barker	Lilian May Parkes
BDM Match (90%)	Thomas Baxter	Lillian May Parkes
	💍 1919/4912
BDM Match (67%)	Thomas Brown	Alice Maud Parkes
	💍 1919/8813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	35	22
Dwelling Place	Riverton	Riverton
Length of Residence	35 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Jno Barker, Riverton
Folio	4144
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Jno Field

8/19

1 May 1919

Fred Church
Margaret Isabella Browning

Fred Church
Margaret Isabella Cumming
💍 1919/4914

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Surfaceman
Domestic Duties

28
28

Riverton
Riverton

28 years
28 years

Presbyterian Church, Riverton

4145

1 May 1919

Rev C A Gray

No	8/19
Date of Notice	1 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Church	Margaret Isabella Browning
BDM Match (90%)	Fred Church	Margaret Isabella Cumming
	💍 1919/4914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Surfaceman	Domestic Duties
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Riverton	Riverton
Length of Residence	28 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Riverton
Folio	4145
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev C A Gray

9/19

20 May 1919

William Hamlin
Margaret Jane Kelly

William Hamlin
Margaret Jane Kelly
💍 1919/4915

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

36
25

Gummie's Bush
Gummie's Bush

5 years
25 years

Presbyterian Church, Riverton

4146

20 May 1919

Rev C A Gray

No	9/19
Date of Notice	20 May 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hamlin	Margaret Jane Kelly
	💍 1919/4915
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	25
Dwelling Place	Gummie's Bush	Gummie's Bush
Length of Residence	5 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Riverton
Folio	4146
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 May 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev C A Gray

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).