Intentions to Marry, 1920 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840494, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1920g contains pages 2957-3440, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 3055

District of Oxford Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar C. E. Jones

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

12 April 1920

Arthur Vincent Baker
Myrtle Olive Loffhagen

Arthur Vincent Baker
Myrtle Olive Loffhagen
💍 1920/6376

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist
Domestic Duties

22
23

Oxford
Oxford

3 days
23 years

St Andrews church Oxford

5988

12 April 1920

Rev L Hard, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	12 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Vincent Baker	Myrtle Olive Loffhagen
	💍 1920/6376
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist	Domestic Duties
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews church Oxford
Folio	5988
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L Hard, Church of England

12 April 1920

Frederick John Eggleton
Mabel Christie Jones

Frederick John Eggleton
Mabel Christie Jones
💍 1920/6377

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

25
29

Coopers Creek
Coopers Creek

7 days
23 years

St Andrews church Oxford

5989

12 April 1920

Rev L Hard, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	12 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick John Eggleton	Mabel Christie Jones
	💍 1920/6377
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	29
Dwelling Place	Coopers Creek	Coopers Creek
Length of Residence	7 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews church Oxford
Folio	5989
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L Hard, Church of England

08 June 1920

Henry Bertram Osborne Nelson
Catherine Maud Askew

Henry Bertram Osborne Nelson
Catherine Maude Askew
💍 1920/6378

Bachelor
Spinster

Council Foreman
Domestic Duties

44
26

Oxford
Oxford

44 years
26 years

St Andrews church Oxford

5990

08 June 1920

Rev L Hard, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	08 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Bertram Osborne Nelson	Catherine Maud Askew
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Bertram Osborne Nelson	Catherine Maude Askew
	💍 1920/6378
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Council Foreman	Domestic Duties
Age	44	26
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	44 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews church Oxford
Folio	5990
Consent
Date of Certificate	08 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L Hard, Church of England

16 June 1920

Richard Thomas Pratt
Mary Alice Burrows

Richard Thomas Pratt
Mary Alice Burrows
💍 1920/6379

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

31
30

Oxford
Oxford

3 days
14 days

Residence of Alfred Burrows West Oxford

5991

16 June 1920

Rev William Lewis, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	16 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Thomas Pratt	Mary Alice Burrows
	💍 1920/6379
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	3 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Alfred Burrows West Oxford
Folio	5991
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev William Lewis, Presbyterian

16 June 1920

William Alexander Purdie
Louise Evelyn Heavyside

William Alexander Purdie
Louise Evelyn Heavyside
💍 1920/6380

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
Domestic Duties

27
30

Oxford
Oxford

3 days
8 years

Church of England Oxford

5992

16 June 1920

Rev L Hard, Church of England

No	8
Date of Notice	16 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander Purdie	Louise Evelyn Heavyside
	💍 1920/6380
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	27	30
Dwelling Place	Oxford	Oxford
Length of Residence	3 days	8 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Oxford
Folio	5992
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L Hard, Church of England

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).