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 3121

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar Leslie G. Bruce

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

25 February 1920

George Stockdill
Annie Eliza Gray

George Stockdill
Annie Eliza Gray
💍 1920/3795

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
27

Timaru
Temuka

3 days
7 months

Registrar's Office, Timaru

2845

25 February 1920

Leslie G. Bruce, Deputy-Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	25 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stockdill	Annie Eliza Gray
	💍 1920/3795
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Temuka
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Timaru
Folio	2845
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Leslie G. Bruce, Deputy-Registrar

25 February 1920

Charlie Winifred Elkin Long
Kate Bracefield

Charlie Winifred Ekin Long
Kate Bracefield
💍 1920/3796

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
25

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
25 years

Congregational Church, Timaru

2846

25 February 1920

Rev. J. Wilson Botts, Congregational

No	42
Date of Notice	25 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charlie Winifred Elkin Long	Kate Bracefield
BDM Match (98%)	Charlie Winifred Ekin Long	Kate Bracefield
	💍 1920/3796
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Timaru
Folio	2846
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Wilson Botts, Congregational

26 February 1920

John Charles Bate
Margaret McCulloch Black

John Charles Bate
Margaret McCulloch Black
💍 1920/3797

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

24
22

Timaru
Timaru

7 days
7 days

Registrar's Office, Timaru

2847

26 February 1920

Leslie G. Bruce, Deputy Registrar

No	43
Date of Notice	26 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Charles Bate	Margaret McCulloch Black
	💍 1920/3797
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Timaru
Folio	2847
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Leslie G. Bruce, Deputy Registrar

27 February 1920

Frank Rowland Watson
Annie Muriel Brown

Frank Rowland Watson
Annie Harriet Brown
💍 1920/3798

Bachelor
Widow

Hairdresser and Tobacconist
Domestic Duties

31
39

Timaru
Timaru

31 years
21 years

Chalmers Church, Timaru

2848

27 February 1920

Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

No	44
Date of Notice	27 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Rowland Watson	Annie Muriel Brown
BDM Match (89%)	Frank Rowland Watson	Annie Harriet Brown
	💍 1920/3798
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Hairdresser and Tobacconist	Domestic Duties
Age	31	39
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	31 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Chalmers Church, Timaru
Folio	2848
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. R. Harris, Presbyterian

2 March 1920

Leslie Harold Brown
Dorothy Quay

Leslie Harold Brown
Dorothy Airay
💍 1920/3800

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

25
24

St Andrews
Temuka

3 months
Life

Bank Street Methodist Church, Timaru

2849

2 March 1920

Rev. A. O. Harris, Methodist

No	45
Date of Notice	2 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Harold Brown	Dorothy Quay
BDM Match (88%)	Leslie Harold Brown	Dorothy Airay
	💍 1920/3800
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	St Andrews	Temuka
Length of Residence	3 months	Life
Marriage Place	Bank Street Methodist Church, Timaru
Folio	2849
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. O. Harris, Methodist

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).