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 3227

District of Catlins Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar W. Barker

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

9 January 1920

James Logan
Jeannie Barr

James Logan
Jeannie Barr
💍 1920/5396

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

36
28

Owaka
Owaka

36 years
8 years

Residence of Robert Barr, Owaka

2903

9 January 1920

Rev. John Chisholm, Presbyterian Minister

No	1
Date of Notice	9 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Logan	Jeannie Barr
	💍 1920/5396
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Owaka	Owaka
Length of Residence	36 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Robert Barr, Owaka
Folio	2903
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Chisholm, Presbyterian Minister

13 January 1920

George Thomas Falconer
Agnes Margaret Wylie

George Thomas Falconer
Agnes Margaret McLay
💍 1920/5397

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

23
22

Owaka
Owaka

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar, Owaka

2904

13 January 1920

W. Barker, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	13 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Thomas Falconer	Agnes Margaret Wylie
BDM Match (88%)	George Thomas Falconer	Agnes Margaret McLay
	💍 1920/5397
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Owaka	Owaka
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Owaka
Folio	2904
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1920
Officiating Minister	W. Barker, Registrar

15 March 1920

Frederick Hay
Jessie Cameron

Frederick Hay
Jessie Cameron
💍 1920/2541

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

34
27

Owaka
Owaka

27 years
4 days

Residence of Cluney, Ashmore

2905

15 March 1920

Rev. J. G. Rule, Presbyterian Minister

No	3
Date of Notice	15 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Hay	Jessie Cameron
	💍 1920/2541
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Owaka	Owaka
Length of Residence	27 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Cluney, Ashmore
Folio	2905
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Rule, Presbyterian Minister

27 March 1920

Robert Alexander McBratney
Marguerite Findlater Berney

Robert Alexander McBeatney
Marguerite Findlater Berney
💍 1920/2552

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
21

Ratanui
Ratanui

21 years
21 years

Residence of Mr. R. Berney, Ratanui

2906

27 March 1920

Rev. J. G. Rule, Presbyterian Minister

No	4
Date of Notice	27 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Alexander McBratney	Marguerite Findlater Berney
BDM Match (98%)	Robert Alexander McBeatney	Marguerite Findlater Berney
	💍 1920/2552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Ratanui	Ratanui
Length of Residence	21 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. R. Berney, Ratanui
Folio	2906
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Rule, Presbyterian Minister

30 March 1920

William Crawford
Mary Janet Apperley

William Crawford
Mary Landreth
💍 1920/2557

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

21
22

Owaka
Owaka

6 years
22 years

Baptist Church, Owaka

2907

30 March 1920

Rev. H. R. Turner, Baptist Minister

No	5
Date of Notice	30 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Crawford	Mary Janet Apperley
BDM Match (71%)	William Crawford	Mary Landreth
	💍 1920/2557
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Owaka	Owaka
Length of Residence	6 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Owaka
Folio	2907
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Turner, Baptist Minister

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).