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 3216

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

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

21 April 1919

Arthur Frank Culliford
Mary Dingwall

Arthur Frank Culliford
May Dingwall
💍 1919/4863

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman
Dressmaker

29
28

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
3 months

Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill

4077

21 April 1919

Rev. W. Laycock

No	60
Date of Notice	21 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Frank Culliford	Mary Dingwall
BDM Match (96%)	Arthur Frank Culliford	May Dingwall
	💍 1919/4863
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman	Dressmaker
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Don Street, Invercargill
Folio	4077
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Laycock

22 April 1919

Garry Brixton
Elsie Garden Miller

Garry Brixton
Elsie Garden Miller
💍 1919/4870

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic

36
29

Waituna
Waituna

4 days
3 years

Residence of Andrew Miller, Waituna, Invercargill

4078

22 April 1919

Rev. W. R. Hume

No	61
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Garry Brixton	Elsie Garden Miller
	💍 1919/4870
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic
Age	36	29
Dwelling Place	Waituna	Waituna
Length of Residence	4 days	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Andrew Miller, Waituna, Invercargill
Folio	4078
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. R. Hume

22 April 1919

Vernon Arnold Winton
Harriet Louie Sheffelbein

Vernon Arnold Wanton
Harriet Louisa Shieffelbiln
💍 1919/4871

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller
Domestic

23
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office, Invercargill

4079

Louie Sheffelbein, mother

22 April 1919

Registrar

No	62
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vernon Arnold Winton	Harriet Louie Sheffelbein
BDM Match (88%)	Vernon Arnold Wanton	Harriet Louisa Shieffelbiln
	💍 1919/4871
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller	Domestic
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Invercargill
Folio	4079
Consent	Louie Sheffelbein, mother
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

22 April 1919

William Wilson
Eliza McEwen

William Wilson
Eliza McEwen
💍 1919/4872

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

34
36

Mabel Bush
Mabel Bush

2 1/2 years
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Dee Street, Invercargill

4080

22 April 1919

Rev. H. W. Burridge

No	63
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Wilson	Eliza McEwen
	💍 1919/4872
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	34	36
Dwelling Place	Mabel Bush	Mabel Bush
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Dee Street, Invercargill
Folio	4080
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge

22 April 1919

William Alexander Patterson
Eliza Chapman McClelland

William Alexander Patterson
Eliza Chapman McClelland
💍 1919/4873

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Home duties

31
29

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 days
29 years

Presbyterian Church, Waikivi, Invercargill

4081

22 April 1919

Rev. J. Robertson

No	64
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander Patterson	Eliza Chapman McClelland
	💍 1919/4873
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Home duties
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 days	29 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waikivi, Invercargill
Folio	4081
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Robertson

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).