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 3210

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1919 Registrar J. J. 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

14 March 1919

John Robertson
Agnes Tait

John Robertson
Agnes Tait
💍 1919/1846

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

29
19

Invercargill
Ryal Bush

29 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Invercargill

1629

Robert R Tait, father

14 March 1919

Registrar

No	36
Date of Notice	14 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robertson	Agnes Tait
	💍 1919/1846
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Ryal Bush
Length of Residence	29 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Invercargill
Folio	1629
Consent	Robert R Tait, father
Date of Certificate	14 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar

19 March 1919

Frederick George Hall-Jones
Marjorie Carne Thomson Bush

Frederick George Hall-Jones
Marjorie Carno Thomson Bush
💍 1919/1847

Bachelor
Spinster

Barrister & Solicitor

29
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

one year
22 years

English Church, Forth St, Invercargill

1630

19 March 1919

Ven Archdn Richards

No	37
Date of Notice	19 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick George Hall-Jones	Marjorie Carne Thomson Bush
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick George Hall-Jones	Marjorie Carno Thomson Bush
	💍 1919/1847
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barrister & Solicitor
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	one year	22 years
Marriage Place	English Church, Forth St, Invercargill
Folio	1630
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Ven Archdn Richards

19 March 1919

Arthur Francis Redgrave
Evelyn Agnes Macalister

Arthur Francis Redgrave
Evelyn Agnes Macalister
💍 1919/1848

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Nurse

30
24

Dannevirke
Invercargill

3 months
24 years

Residence of Mrs Agnes C Macalister, 11 Hollywood Terrace, Gladstone, Invercargill

1631

19 March 1919

Rev Jas Baird

No	38
Date of Notice	19 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Francis Redgrave	Evelyn Agnes Macalister
	💍 1919/1848
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Nurse
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Agnes C Macalister, 11 Hollywood Terrace, Gladstone, Invercargill
Folio	1631
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Baird

20 March 1919

Robert Bruce Caws
Elizabeth Kathleen Evans

Robert Bruce Caws
Elizabeth Kathleen Evans
💍 1919/1223

Robert Bruce Caws
Elizabeth Kathleen Evans
💍 1919/3901

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

31
24

Invercargill
Timaru

6 years
24 years

St Mary's English Church, Timaru

1704

20 March 1919

Rev J. H. Rogers

No	39
Date of Notice	20 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Bruce Caws	Elizabeth Kathleen Evans
	💍 1919/1223
	💍 1919/3901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Timaru
Length of Residence	6 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's English Church, Timaru
Folio	1704
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. Rogers

20 March 1919

Alan Burns Macalister
Margaret Bruce Paterson

Alan Burns Macalister
Margaret Bruce Peterson
💍 1919/1918

Bachelor
Spinster

Law Clerk
Nurse

24
21

Invercargill
Dunedin

24 years
21 years

First Presbyterian Church, Dunedin

1699

20 March 1919

Rev S. Gray

No	40
Date of Notice	20 March 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alan Burns Macalister	Margaret Bruce Paterson
BDM Match (98%)	Alan Burns Macalister	Margaret Bruce Peterson
	💍 1919/1918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Law Clerk	Nurse
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Dunedin
Length of Residence	24 years	21 years
Marriage Place	First Presbyterian Church, Dunedin
Folio	1699
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev S. 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).